UNLESS you’ve been living in a bubble these last few weeks, the well-documented and ongoing saga of Greece’s never ending debt crisis won’t have escaped your attention.

After a no vote to austerity measures recommended by creditors, Greece has only a short amount of time to reach a new deal to save the country from bankruptcy.

EU leaders say the no vote had severely constrained their ability to help Greece, warning any new deals reached by the 28 EU members would be much tougher than those that could have been reached a few weeks ago.

The Grexit scenario is now one that is much more realistic than people ever thought six months ago when the stand-off began.

So who are the key EU players putting pressure on Greece to come up with a full range of reforms, which could prevent the country from falling further into an economic tailspin?

Germany's Chancellor, Angela Merkel, is arguably the leader of the EU nations requiring Greece to continue with austerity and fiscal discipline.

Germany has provided millions in financial support for Greece to no avail, leading to greater pressure from the German public to cut off all financial aid to the country.

The German Vice-Chancellor was quoted saying the Greek Prime Minister, Alexis Tsipras, had “torn down the last bridges” between Greece and Europe.

France has been more sympathetic towards Greece, but recognises that some serious changes need to be made in order to keep them in the EU.

The French President, Francois Hollande, has called for speedy decisions to be made to prevent the debt talks from rolling into another month.

Mr Hollande has recognised the Grexit would have global consequences and thus, it is in the best interests of the EU members and those outside of the geographic region to come to an agreement to prevent this from happening.

Italian views are somewhat aligned with those of its neighbours in France.

The country has a large level of debt and is therefore worried the Grexit would cause costly aftershocks should Greece leave the EU.

Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said it was in Greece’s “strong interest to stay in the euro”, but the country must follow the rules imposed by the EU in coming to a successful agreement to start paying back its debt levels.

Although there are 25 other European countries actively engaging in the ongoing emergency summit, the three discussed above seemingly have the loudest voices into the success or collapse of the Greek economy.

This being said all 28 all have to ratify any deal.

Should Greece’s bank’s collapse, there is a strong possibility that if the ECB withdraws the Emergency Liquidity Assistance, a Grexit becomes more likely.

It is evident though that as time ticks on and an agreement is not found, Greece’s economic stability will continue to deteriorate until a point when a Grexit becomes the only option.

The world awaits the next set of reform proposals, to see whether this one finally gets the backing of the EU and secures the bailout which Greece longs for.

Oliver York is a trainee investment manager at Brewin Dolphin.

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