This article is from the source 'independent' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/greece-referendum-debt-crisis-live-alexis-tsipras-heads-to-eu-summit-to-broker-last-minute-deal-10370673.html

The article has changed 4 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 0 Version 1
Greece debt crisis live: Alexis Tsipras heads to EU summit to broker last minute deal Greece debt crisis live: EU chiefs at loggerheads hours before Alexis Tsipras’s last ditch deal proposals
(about 2 hours later)
Here are the latest updates:Here are the latest updates:
•Dutch PM tells Greece: Bring in proper reforms - or it's over•Tsipras to come up with new plan to save Greece within 24 hours•Yanis Varoufakis resigns after being 'forced out'• Greeks say ‘No’ to austerity and plunge Europe into crisis• The Greece debt crisis explained in less than 100 words• What does a ‘No’ vote in the referendum mean• Will Greek troubles spill over to the rest of Europe and UK? •EU chiefs at loggerheads hours before Alexis Tsipras’s last ditch deal proposals•Dutch PM tells Greece: Bring in proper reforms - or it's over•Tsipras to come up with new plan to save Greece within 24 hours•Yanis Varoufakis resigns after being 'forced out'• Greeks say ‘No’ to austerity and plunge Europe into crisis• The Greece debt crisis explained in less than 100 words• What does a ‘No’ vote in the referendum mean• Will Greek troubles spill over to the rest of Europe and UK?
Greece owes around €340 billion to European countries and international bodies like the IMF. It borrowed the money in two periods of crisis – one in 2010 and another in 2012.  
Greece’s government put in place budget cuts and austerity measures to try and meet the debt repayments. Life got more difficult for ordinary people in Greece as a result, and in February they elected the left wing Syriza party to protect social spending and help ordinary people. EU leaders are divided over whether Greece will be able to salvage a deal at a European Union summit at 5pm today.
As Greece got further behind on its debt repayments, the lenders offered an ultimatum: make further cuts, or the emergency aid stops. Syriza refused the ultimatum and, to make sure, held a referendum on Sunday to check that the Greek people agreed. In a speech to the European Parliament this morning, European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker said that his aim was to prevent Greece from leaving the Eurozone, even though a new deal would take time.
Instead, Greece wants its debt to be restructured – which means some of it would be written off. “My aim is to prevent Grexit. I am against Grexit,” he said.
If more aid cannot be secured, Greek banks will run out of money. The government will have to start printing the drachma – Greece’s old currency – to keep cash in the banks. It would have no choice but to leave the euro. In a press conference on Tuesday morning, Martin Shulz, the president of the European Parliament, agreed. “I’m in favour of keeping the eurozone together. Those who want to split up the eurozone are wrong,” he said.
Not all politicians agree with this view.  German CDU politician Klaus-Peter Willsch told the BBC that Greece should not stay within the EU.
“At this moment, if you have Greece out of the euro, it will strengthen the euro,” he said. “I think we need to restructure the Eurozone so that countries can get out if they can’t take it any longer.”
Christine Lagarde, the head of the International Monetary Fund, is reportedly staying away from the summit this evening. That’s not surprising – Greece is in arrears to the IMF after missing a €1.6 billion payment on June 25.