Withdrawal from the European Union

The latest word from Brussels is that Greece will unlikely be offered an extension at the Eurogroup meeting that begins at 3 p.m. on Saturday. Several countries already have expressed their opposition to this scenario.

Just as everybody was fearing a Grexit, Frexit, Brexit, the Austrians launched a petition to quit the EU. Activists who launched the petition argue that Austria would be better off economically without the EU and is on a drive to gather 100,000 signatures by July 1 required for the national parliament to consider the initiative.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras dismissed on Friday the latest proposal of the international creditors to extend the country's bailout, criticising their approach as unacceptable.

Tsipras stressed that the founding principles of the EU were democracy, solidarity, equality and mutual respect rather than ultimatums and blackmail, the Greek Reporter informs.

The euro debt crisis has spawned its own vocabulary. Right at the outset we had the PIIGS (Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain) being herded by Merkozy. Then came Merlande or Merkellande (dubbed for German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Fraancois Hollande)… But what will come after the Grexit?

By Eleni Varvitsiotis

Brussels - Kathimerini has obtained the full proposal submitted by the Greek government to the institutions. All 11 pages can be seen here.

The proposals contain 7.9 billion euros of measures, of which 7.3 are from increases to tax and social security contributions.

A eurozone emergency summit on Greece's debt crisis later Monday may only take the form of "consultations" if Athens' creditors haven't approved Greece's latest proposals, a German government spokesman warned.

Eurozone leaders meeting in Brussels later on Monday are unlikely to be able to take a formal decision on whether to provide aid to Greece but there is still time this week to finalise an agreement, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said.

British bookmaker William Hill has re-opened its book on whether Greece will leave the eurozone by the end of this year, it said on Thursday.

By Sumanta Dey

There is an even chance of Greece defaulting on its debt payments, according to economists polled by Reuters, although the probability of it leaving the eurozone is still only one-in-three.

British Prime Minister David Cameron has performed a U-turn and ruled out holding a European Union membership referendum on May 5, 2016, a shift to placate some of his own lawmakers who were opposed to it being held on the same day as local elections.