Europe considers Greek request for third bailout

EU leaders will meet tonight at 7pm (Spanish time) to discuss a request from the Greek government, made this afternoon, for a new bailout.
Without an agreement on an extension on repayments of Greece’s existing loans, the Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis was quite clear today that the country would miss its deadline today (June 30) to repay €1.5 billion to the International Monetary Fund.
So instead Greece has requested a new loan from the European Stability Mechanism (the EU’s bailout fund) which it will use exclusively to service the old debt, to avoid a default.
In the letter sent to Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the chair of the EU’s group of finance ministers, Prime Minster Alexis Tsipras said that Greece was “fully committed to service its external debt in a manner that secures the viability of the Greek economy, growth and social cohesion.”