Eurogroup receives Greek reform proposals

The spokesman for Jeroen Dijsselbloem, who is also the Dutch finance minister, announced via his Twitter feed late on Thursday that the promised reform package from the Greek government, had been received via email. This meant that Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras' government beat the deadline for doing so by a couple of hours.

There was no immediate word on the details of the proposals.

Experts from the group of international creditors formerly known as the "troika" - the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund - now have the task of assessing the viability of the reforms, approved by Tsipras' cabinet a few hours earlier.

While experts from the three institutions continue to examine the proposals, Greek lawmakers are set to vote on the package on Friday.

Bailout No. 3

Greece is seeking a third bailout from the institutions days after it failed to make a 1.6-billion-euro ($1.76-billion) repayment to the IMF at the end of last month.

Over the past five years, Athens has already received 240 billion euros in two previous bailouts, the last of which expired on June 30. Its creditors also forgave 107 billion euros of Greek debt three years ago.

In the hours leading up to Greece's submission, there was much debate among European politicians and other officials about possible fresh debt forgiveness for Greece.

Although Germany remains strictly against a fresh "haircut," Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble conceded that the managing director of the IMF, Christine Lagarde, was probably right when she said a day earlier that Greece needed some form of debt restructuring to be successful. But he also warned that this couldn't come from the Europe "because it would infringe on the system of the European Union and after all the European Union is a community of common laws."

Demonstration in favor of the euro

Meanwhile, a few thousand people gathered in Athens on Thursday evening to demand that the government and the international creditors reach a deal to keep Greece in the euro.

This came as the situation for the Greek people continued to deteriorate, with capital controls to remain in place until at least next Monday. These allow Greeks to withdraw a maximum of 60 euros daily - if they can find an ATM that is stocked with cash. Greek pensioners, who don't have bank cards, can withdraw a maximum of 120 euros per week.

pfd/rc Reuters, AFP, dpa)