The problems posed by Greece's debt-laden economy, and the risk of it having to leave the 19-member eurozone via a so-called a "Grexit," have weighed on many European Union (EU) summit meetings.
That risk has grown substantially since January 2015, when Greek voters handed power to the radical left party Syriza which fiercely opposes the terms of previous international bailouts
On January 25, 2015, general elections were won by Syriza, which now holds 149 of the parliament's 300 seats. Its leader Alexis Tsipras has formed a coalition government with a populist right-wing group the Independent Greeks party, which has 13 deputies.
The third force in Greek politics is the neo-nazi party Golden Dawn, which occupies 17 seats in parliament.
Greece's financial crisis has grown steadily, with public debt climbing from 107 per cent of national output in 2007 to 177 % in 2014 according to the EU statistics office Eurostat.
That is far above the theoretical EU limit of 60%
According to the Greek debt management agency, in March national debt stood at 312.7 billion euros, or 174.7 % of gross domestic product (GDP).
In monetary terms, Greece's 2014 debts of 317 billion euros was also deemed unsustainable by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), one of the country's main creditors.
Greece has benefitted from two major aid packages, the first of which was worth 110 billion euros from the EU, IMF and European Central Bank (ECB) and required a Greek pledge to enact drastic economic reforms.
As the economic situation deteriorated, a second bail-out was approved in 2012. It included additional loans worth 130 billion euros and the write-off of 107 billion in debt held by private creditors.
The last disbursement of this loan, worth 7.2 billion euros, has been delayed as Greece has negotiated with its creditors over fresh reforms.
Austerity measures have already had a devastating effect on the economy.
From 2010 to 2013, average earnings in Greece have fallen by more than 3,000 euros, and unemployment more than tripled between 2008 and 2013 to 27.5%
Among Greeks under the age of 25, the jobless rate leapt from 21.9% to almost 60 % over the same period
Timeline - Greek Debt Crisis
2009
October: The Greek government of George Papandreou reveals that the national public deficit for 2009 was twice as much as thought at 12.7 per cent of the country's output, instead of 6.0 per cent. The figure is later raised again to 15 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP).
December: The three main credit ratings agencies Fitch, Standard & Poor's and Moody's downgrade Greece's debt.
2010
January-March: Fears over Greece's finances send its bond yields the interest rate the government must pay to borrow soaring.
April: 10-year bond yields leap above 8.5 percent, the highest since the country adopted the euro in 2001. With public debt now at 350 billion euros ($435 billion) and with bond yields surging making it unsustainable for Greece to borrow on the markets Athens appeals for aid from the EU and the IMF.
May: Greece becomes the first eurozone country to receive a bailout as the EU and IMF announce a 110-billion-euro package in exchange for painful austerity measures, including harsh wage cuts and tax hikes.
2011
October: As Greece's economic situation deteriorates further, the eurozone proposes a second bailout package of 130 billion euros under which private sector creditors also agree to write off about half the debt owed to them.
2012
February: The eurozone approves Greece's second bailout package.
2014
April: Greece returns to sovereign debt markets for the first time in four years, and posts a primary surplus (which excludes debt interest payments) at the end of the year.
2015
January 25: The anti-austerity Syriza party, led by Alexis Tsipras, wins a snap election with a pledge to renegotiate the bailout terms. In five years, national output has been cut by 25 percent, salaries have fallen by more than that, and a quarter of the workforce is unemployed.
February 20: Greek authorities and its creditor institutions agree to extend aid until the end of June. Athens pledges to come up with reform measures in exchange for the last 7.2 billion euros in rescue funds.
June 2: After months of bickering, the creditor institutions make a final pitch to Greece regarding the reforms deemed necessary.
June 5: Tsipras rejects creditor demands for pension cuts and labour market reforms.
June 10: EU leaders in turn reject a counter-proposal from Greece.
June 17: The Greek central bank warns for the first time the country could suffer an exit from the eurozone and even the EU if it fails to reach a bailout deal.
June 24: For the fifth time in eight days, the ECB increases emergency funding for Greek banks.
June 26: Creditors offer Athens a five-month, 12-billion-euro extension of its bailout programme but say it must seal a deal quickly to avoid an IMF default on June 30.
June 27: Tsipras calls for a surprise July 5 referendum on the creditors' latest bailout proposals. Eurozone finance ministers accuse Greece of breaking off talks "unilaterally" and refuse to extend its bailout past June 30. In Greece, bank customers rush to withdraw cash.
June 28: The government orders banks to close until today and imposes capital controls as ATMs run dry and the ECB refuses to increase emergency funding for Greek lenders.
June 30: Greece's bailout officially expires and the country defaults on a 1.5-billion-euro debt payment to the IMF.
July 5: Greeks vote in bail-out referendum.
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