Eurogroup, the regular session of Eurozone finance ministers met in an emergency session last night in Brussels to discuss Greece's precarious finances. Greece has made it clear to its EU partners and international creditors that it will not agree to a further bailout under the same conditions that have been imposed in the past by the Memorandum of Understanding, which bound Greece to carry out strict austerity measures and a privatisation programme, amongst other reforms. 

Greece's new coalition government has been elected on an anti-austerity platform, and the government is sticking to this democratic mandate. They point to the humanitarian crisis that has seen many ordinary Greeks fall into poverty, as well as a marked rise in suicide rates and a public health crisis as the outcome of the harsh austerity measures. Last night as the Greek finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, attended the negotiations in Brussels, Syntagma square outside the Greek parliament in Athens, as well as other squares around the country, filled with thousands of citizens in support of the government's efforts. 
 
With Greece's current bailout due to expire at the end of the month, the country will soon in effect run out of money if no agreement is reached. Varoufakis has proposed a bridging loan to finance the country while Greece and its EU partners negotiate a more permanent solution, but the meeting last night failed to find common ground. Being the first round of official negotiations, the meeting had not been expected to produce an immediate agreement, but it had been hoped that a framework for future talks would be agreed.  Attention will now focus on the upcoming EU summit on Thursday, the first for new Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras