THE LATEST: Greeks march to show support for staying in euro

7:15 p.m. (1715 GMT, 1:15 p.m. EDT)

Thousands of people are gathering outside the Greek parliament in central Athens to show support for the country’s future in the eurozone and the European Union.

It’s the latest in a series of peaceful protests organized in recent days by demonstrators friendly to the government’s anti-austerity agenda as well as supporters of the country’s future within the currency and political union.

Attendees have included, respectively, cabinet ministers and opposition lawmakers.

A rally against public spending cuts on Sunday drew 7,000, about average for such protests. It’s a far cry from the large anti-austerity marches of the past five years, which numbered in the tens of thousands, and often degenerated into intense street fighting between petrol bomb-throwing anarchists and riot police shooting tear gas.

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5:55 p.m. (1555 GMT, 11:55 a.m. EDT)

Greece’s economy minister, Giorgios Stathakis says his country’s latest offer of reforms are enough to convince the country’s international lenders to provide more loans.

“They have accepted that the new proposal of the Greek government is a proper framework on which to work,” he told Britain’s BBC.

Stathakis says the proposals include new taxes on business and the wealthy but no further cuts in pensions or public-sector salaries, which was still a “red line” for Greece.

However, Athens will make tougher rules on early retirement and shift some categories of goods to a higher sales tax bracket, including hotels and certain foods. Emergency bailout taxes that had been imposed will remain, despite the Tsipras government’s pledge to phase them out, Stathakis said.

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3:20 p.m. (1320 GMT, 9:20 a.m. EDT)

The eurozone’s top official says creditors aim to get a deal on Greece’s bailout later in the week.

Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the Dutchman who chairs the eurozone finance ministers’ meetings, said negotiators would be using Greek proposals made this weekend as a basis for further talks.

“It’s an opportunity to get that deal this week,” he said after the eurozone meeting on Monday ended.

Greece is in talks on what reforms it needs to make before it can get more bailout loans. It needs more loans before June 30, when it faces defaulting on a debt repayment.

It had made a new proposal of reforms over the weekend, but the creditors said they did not have enough time to evaluate the plan on Monday.

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3:05 p.m. (1305 GMT, 9:05 a.m. EDT)

Eurozone finance ministers broke off talks without a full agreement on Greece’s bailout. That leaves a meeting of government leaders later Monday with few prospects to reach a comprehensive deal to keep Athens from defaulting next week and falling out of the currency union.

Greece needs more loans from its creditors, which include its fellow eurozone states and the International Monetary Fund, in time for June 30, when it faces a debt repayment it cannot afford. The country has been negotiating for four months what economic reforms it should make to get the money.

After a midday meeting among the 19 eurozone ministers, Finnish Finance Minister Alexander Stubb said “No agreement. We agreed to continue” negotiations to look for a full deal later in the week.

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2:20 p.m. (1220 GMT, 8:20 a.m. EDT)

Another meeting, and again a lack of clear Greek proposals, German Finance Wolgang Schaeuble groused Monday.

In four months of negotiations, international creditors have complained time and again that Athens was either too late or too vague in proposing reforms it would make in exchange for loans.

Schaeuble said Monday ahead of a finance ministers’ meeting on the issue: “We are still in the same situation as last Thursday,” when the 19 ministers of the eurozone last assessed Greece’s proposals.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras offered new proposals over the weekend. Several European Union officials, however, complained that the proposals were never discussed at a technical level, where negotiators examine them to make sure the figures make sense.

“We cannot prepare a statement for the summit” of government leaders due later Monday. The leaders would have to make political decisions based on the advice of the finance ministers.

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2:10 p.m. (1210 GMT, 8:10 a.m. EDT)

As uncertainty hangs over Greece’s financial future, Polish Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz is advising Poles traveling to Greece to take a “larger amount of cash” with them.

Greeks have been withdrawing money in increasing amounts in recent days amid concerns over the country’s financial plight. In a worst case scenario, the Greek government could have to put limits on the amount of money Greeks can withdraw in order to prevent a bank run.

“If you are going to Greece on vacation, please keep checking the situation there, because it will be very dynamic,” said Kopacz. “Please, do not count only on your ATM cards and on ATM machines, but take a larger amount of cash with you,” she added.

Greece is holding emergency talks with its creditors in Brussels on Monday. It needs more loans to not default on a debt repayment due June 30.

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1:10 p.m. (1110 GMT, 7:10 a.m. EDT)

Finland’s Finance Minister Alexander Stubb was pessimistic about the chances of a breakthrough on Monday.

“I think this day’s going to be a non-entity I’m afraid,” he told reporters as he arrived for talks with his eurozone counterparts, ahead of a leaders’ summit in the evening.

“I don’t foresee a breakthrough today,” he said.

His Irish counterpart, Michael Noonan, also said he has “very low expectations for a deal today.”

Noonan said there was confusion with proposals that Greek officials submitted overnight. “There hasn’t been any preparation” he said.

“It’s still not clear what the proposals are” from Greece he said.

Noonan predicted that the eurozone finance ministers would have to meet again Thursday, ahead of a summit of the 28-nation EU.

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12:35 p.m. (1035 GMT, 6:35 a.m. EDT)

French President Francois Hollande says “progress has been made in the negotiations” between Greece and its creditors, which include eurozone states like France.

Hollande is urging Greece to find an agreement at a Monday summit in Brussels between Greece and its creditors.

“We must do everything so that an agreement is found tonight,” Hollande said at an event in Paris before heading to Brussels.

If Monday’s talks are inconclusive, Hollande insists an agreement would need to be found “within the next days.”

“France and Germany are aware that Greece must remain in the eurozone,” he said.

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11:25 a.m. (0925 GMT, 5:25 a.m. EDT)

The European Central Bank has increased the amount of emergency credit it allows Greek banks to draw on to remain afloat, and remains on call in coming days to revise the amount should that be necessary, a banking official says.

The official, who spoke Monday only on condition of anonymity as the ECB had not made the decision public, declined to provide the amount.

The credit helps support Greek banks, from which worried savers have been pulling money out ahead of a critical European summit on Monday on how to keep the country solvent.

Figures have not been officially released, but reports suggest Greeks withdrew about 4 billion euros last week.

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11:20 a.m. (0920 GMT, 5:20 a.m. EDT)

A top European Union official says that debt talks between Greece and its international creditors have made some progress but that a deal to avoid potential bankruptcy remains elusive.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said Monday that the sides have made “progress over the last few days but we are not yet there.”

His comments came as Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras arrived for talks ahead of an important summit of leaders from the 19-nation eurozone.

The meeting is aimed at staving off bankruptcy in Greece and avoiding a potentially disastrous exit for the country from the euro single currency.

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11:05 a.m. (0905 GMT, 5:05 a.m. EDT)

Amid the high-stakes negotiations in Brussels over Greek debt, many Greeks have been taking their cash out of banks in large amounts.

Some two billion euros (nearly $2.3 billion) was withdrawn over just three days last week.

Yannis Nikolopoulos said in Athens says Monday “everyone’s going (to the banks) to take money.”

He said people are taking “some money to have at home for 10, 15 days — say 1,000, 500 euros, because if the banks shut it’ll be a problem to go shopping.”

He said a deal between Greece and its creditors “is mandatory at all costs, otherwise we’re doomed.”

Vassiliki Papanagiotou, a lawyer in Athens, is urging “prudence on both sides,” warning that “otherwise Greece will collapse.”

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10:05 a.m. (0805 GMT, 4:05 a.m. EDT)

European stock markets are surging on hopes that Greece and its creditors will reach a deal to get the country more loans before it goes bankrupt at the end of the month.

The Athens stock exchange led the charge, jumping 7.1 percent. The Stoxx 50 of top European shares was up 2.7 percent, with Germany’s DAX gaining 2.8 percent.

Leaders of the 19-nation eurozone are gathering in Brussels for a last-ditch summit aimed at clinching a deal between Greece and international lenders as a major debt payment deadline looms.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras presented the leaders of Germany, France and the European Union over the weekend with a new proposal for a deal. No details of it were made public.

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