European leaders are gathering for an emergency summit in Brussels that could break the deadlock around the debt crisis facing Greece.
On Sunday, the Greek Prime Minister, Alexis Tsipras, set out new proposals to try and prevent a default on a €1.6bn (£1.1bn) International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan.
The proposals, according to an European official, held plenty of promise.
Greece risks crashing out of the single currency and possibly the European Union (EU) if it fails to repay the loan by the end of June
Talks have been in deadlock for five months. The European Commission, the IMF and the European Central Bank (ECB) are not willing to unlock the final €7.2bn tranche of bailout funds until Greece agrees to economic reforms.
The three creditors must agree to the deal offered by Greece, to ensure Monday’s talks have a clear focus.
Further findings revealed that if deposit withdrawals continue at the current pace, Greek banks will soon exhaust eligible assets they can pledge to the Bank of Greece for cash under the Emergency Liquidity Assistance (ELA) scheme.
Before then, the ECB could turn off the ELA drip feed because it is forbidden to allow the Bank of Greece to lend to insolvent banks.
