12.05 It isn't just the Greeks who are protesting ahead of the Brussels meeting this afternoon (see 10.14). Campaigners from 'Jubilee Debt Campaign' are holding a more modest-looking demonstration outside the European Commission office in London. Interesting that they highlight concerns over the escrow account, which would give legal priority to debt and interest payments over paying for government services (see 09.15). What is happening in Greece today mirrors what has been happening in the developing world for 30 years - unaccountable international institutions demanding a pound of the people's flesh in exchange for bailing out banks and rewarding speculators. "This package only bail-outs the banks - indeed proposals on the table at the moment suggest that Greece will not even see most of this money - it will be paid to the "creditors" through a separate account. Here they are in what looks a rather stage managed shot: This shows "the French, German and British banks whose interests are being prioritised by EU leaders holding Greece in the chains of debt slavery," apparently. 11.31 Mario Monti, the Italian prime minister, is making a decent fist of sounding more optimistic. He says a group of 'seven to eight' EU countries have written a letter to the heads of the EU and of the European Commission with proposals to stimulate growth in the hope that the Greek debt crisis appears to have been contained. He added that there will be no need for a new Italian austerity budget even as the eurozone's third biggest economy slips into recession. When I am asked whether we will have a new budget if the recession lasts, if there is no improvement for the economy, the answer is there is no need for it. 11.24 Hans-Werner Sinn, the head of Ifo, a top German economic think tank, says a €130bn (£108bn) bail-out today will only help international banks, not the Greeks. The politicians know [the second bailout can't save Greece]. They want to gain time until the next election. I think we're wasting time by doing this. Greece's external debt is rising with every year that passes until it leaves the currency union. We're getting ever further away from solving the problem. The basic problem is that Greece isn't competitive. The cheap loans that the euro brought the country artificially raised prices and wages -- and the country has to come back down from this high level," he told Germany's Spiegel Online. 11.16 Bloomberg's Linda Yueh tweets that there is "broad agreement" on the 'escrow' account (see 09.15) that will see Greek aid paid into a separately managed account with staggered payments and creditors paid first. 10.58 With the Dax, Cac 40 and FTSE 100 all up this morning, Lee McDarby, of Investec Corporate Treasury, offers the following on the equity market's outlook on today's Brussels summit: Even at this very advanced stage of the talks the biggest fear of the market is nothing to do with the ability of the Greek government to honour the agreement or the size of the haircut private investors will be forced to take on their debt (even though both these issues will be discussed this afternoon), but whether an agreement will actually be passed. The uncertainty of the outcome of any decisions taken today cannot be underestimated with the most extreme being measures taken to set the wheels in motion for an orderly default by Greece and consequently an orderly exit from the euro and return to the Drachma. We think this remains unlikely due to the tidal wave of contagion issues this would cause with Portugal being next in the firing line. 10.51 Bruno Waterfield, our Brussels correspondent, reports that the key thing to watch out for at the meeting today are more signs that the IMF's patience is running out with eurozone failure to decisively tackle the Greek debt crisis: The IMF is expected to only offer minimal funds for a second aid package because it is concerned that the EU has not restructured Greek debt enough for Greece to be able to pay back what it owes, to end its spiral of soaring borrowing costs. The fund's unwillingness to be as involved as it has been in previous bailouts will mean eurozone governments come under pressure to put up extra cash or take a loss on Greek bonds held by central banks and ECB. The contribution by the IMF to the new rescue will be far lower than originally anticipated. Leaked figures show it will only contribute €13bn - or around 10pc. That's far less than the one-third lent in the Irish, Portuguese and first Greek bail-outs. Back in October, in a troika report the ECB tried to suppress, the IMF demanded that Greek debt be reduced to 120pc by 2020. But a new troika debt sustainability report, still secret, is said to show that Greek debt will only fall to 129pc by 2020. Those figures are almost bound to get even worse as optimistic growth forecasts for Greece fail to metrialise. Based on previous statements and the fund's policy, if the ratio cannot be cut to around 120pc then the IMF may not be able to help finance the Greek programme in future. This could point to a possible summer default by Greece after the eurozone's new bailouts fund is up and running in July. Can the eurozone continue as before if the IMF pulls out? 10.47 Some more from Evangelos Venizelos, Greece's finance minister (see 09.55) on today's talks: Until the very last moment, the negotiation carries on. Technical problems are being discussed, individual parameters are being examined and preferences or priorities of institutional partners or member-states are affecting the mood of the talks. But I believe that all those things will be finally decided...using as high criterion the principles that underpin the European project. 10.35 Charles Moore has just reviewed John Maynard Keynes' The Economic Consequences of the Peace. Since the book was published in 1919, he's rather late - but ahead of today's meeting in Brussels, the "work seems strangely relevant," he says: "As the Financial Commission of the defeated Germany protested in 1919: "German democracy is now annihilated... by the very people who throughout the war never tired of maintaining that they sought to bring democracy to us... Germany is no longer a people and a state, but has become a mere trade concern placed by its creditors in the hands of a receiver." 10.23 Rachel Cooper has the latest market news this morning: 10.14 Overnight scenes from Athens as Greeks protested ahead of today's summit in Brussels highlight how hard it will be to make austerity measures stick, whatever the outcome of the meeting. 10.10 According to Reuters, which cites a Greek finance ministry source, a "deeper haircut" for the country's private bondholders is still being discussed. The source added that there is agreement that interest rates on EU / IMF loans already paid to Greece will be lowered, Reuters reports: "There appears to be an agreement on lowering the interest rate of the initial [EU/IMF] loans to Greece as well as on the participation of Greek bonds held in the investment portfolios of [eurozone] national central banks in the debt swap plan," the official told the news agency on condition of anonymity." 09.55 Greek finance minister Evangelos Venizelos says technical issues on the country's bailout package are still being discussed but he expects "uncertainty" to end today. We expect today the long period of uncertainty - which was in the interest of neither the Greek economy nor the euro zone as a whole - to end. The Greek people send to Europe the message that they have made, and will make, the necessary sacrifices for our country to regain its position of equality within the European family. 09.40 Independent blogger John Ward tweets that the the "intention of most people of influence" is for Greece to default and there will be enough "poison pills" in any debt deal today to "kill an elephant." The EU is, unbelievably...about to throw a staggering 130bn of our tax euros at a horse killed weeks ago by the very austerity programme it and the IMF demanded. It's a calculated gamble, but I think that Draghi, Schauble, Washington and others have made smart moves designed to ensure the deal won't go through: credit agencies crying default, bondholders screaming blue murder, Greeks burning down Evangelo Venizelos, Athens politicians refusing to take a poisoned pill. 09.15 There's talk that any second bailout for Greece should be paid into an 'escrow' account which would be separately managed to ensure the country services its debt. Staggered payments would mean that the country would have to stick to bailout conditions and austerity reforms to receive further funds. Austrian Finance Minister Maria Fekter said: That is being prepared on the technical level. The finance ministers will discuss this intensely at their meeting. I welcome such a special account. 09.10 Here's the indication from Francois Baroin - also known for declaring that "it's better to be French than British" in December - that the debt deal deal will be pushed through later today in more detail: All the elements are in place...both with the bankers, private sector creditors, and public sector creditors, the states and central banks. That is what I will plead for as minister of finance today. I think we should take account of everything that has been done in recent weeks by the Greek government, and by political parties both on the left and the right. 08.56 Whatever happens to Greece today, the failings of the eurozone have not been addressed, according to an interesting article in this week's Economist. The lack of a co-ordinated fiscal policy, and the loss of competitiveness (and banking troubles) at its periphery, help explain why it has tipped into recession, says Laurence Boone of Bank of America. The chosen remedies are fiscal austerity, structural reform and deleveraging by banks. Given enough time, these measures might restore the zone to health. But they might first push some countries off the ledge. 08.41 Most observers are expecting a debt deal to be done today. French finance minister Francois Baroin (pictured) said "all the elements are in place" to reach an agreement at today's meeting. But will the deal be enough to rescue Greece? An opinion poll published over the weekend showed that most Greeks want their country to stay in the eurozone, but only about half believe it will manage to do so. According to analyst Michael Karagianis, the pessimists are probably right. The senior investment strategist at MLC Investment Management told Reuters that "even with the bailout fund, Greece is likely to default this year" and that an orderly default will be "disruptive but ultimately good news." 08.25 A less pressing - but arguably just as serious - concern than today's €130bn debt talks is the prospect of a hard landing in China. Here's Jerome Booth of Ashmore Investment research in this morning's Telegraph on why that's as likely as "a comet destroying Earth." It is as near to a fantasy as economic prediction gets, albeit a convenient fantasy for those wanting to hang onto the tenuous argument that the developed world is still safer than the emerging world. 08.16 Europe's markets are open. The FTSE 100 in London has opened up 0.6pc at 5,942.84, while the CAC 40 in Paris is up 0.7pc at 3,464.97 and Frankfurt's DAX 30 has risen 0.66pc to 6,893.06. 08.03 In other news, Japan has posted its biggest-ever trade deficit in January, as a strong yen and slumping demand in Europe continued to harm exports following last year's Fukushima nuclear disaster. A container is unloaded from an international cargo ship for transfer to a truck at the Tokyo port on Sunday (Photo: AFP) 07.59 The FT's Wolfgang Münchau argues this morning that Greece must default if it wants democracy: When Wolfgang Schäuble proposed that Greece should postpone its elections as a condition for further help, I knew that the game would soon be up. We are at the point where success is no longer compatible with democracy. The German finance minister wants to prevent a "wrong" democratic choice. Similar to this is the suggestion to let the elections go ahead, but to have a grand coalition irrespective of the outcome. The eurozone wants to impose its choice of government on Greece - the eurozone's first colony. I understand Mr Schäuble's dilemma. He has a fiduciary duty to his parliament and is being asked to sign off on a programme that he doubts will work. Releasing the funds before an election is risky. What is to stop a new Greek government and a new parliament from unilaterally changing the agreement? 07.55 And they weren't the only ones. In Spain, protesters gathered in more than 50 towns and cities to demonstrate against a latest round of cuts which include sweeping labour reforms. AFP reported that "hundreds of thousands" of protesters gathered in Spain's capital, Madrid, and Barcelona. Felipe Rey, 75, shouts slogans against the government's recently approved labour reforms during a protest in Madrid on Sunday. The banner reads: "without bread, without peace" (Photo: AP). 07.50 The unrest continues in Athens, with thousands taking to the streets yesterday in two separate rallies in the Greek capital. A protester with a placard placed on on a rake chats with another at Syntagma square in front of the Greek parliament in Athens on Sunday.The placard reads " Do not Buy German and French products prefer Greek." Photo: AP. 07.21 Ambrose has taken a more reflective look at Greece's problems in this morning's Telegraph. He asks: can a return to the drachma save Greece as unemployment there soars? In November alone, 126,000 Greeks lost their jobs in a country of 11m, equivalent to 680,000 Britons in a single month. The unemployment rate jumped from 18.2pc to 20.9pc. This has not yet fed through into social breakdown. Professor Manos Matsaganis from Athens University said Greeks receive unemployment support for an average of thirty weeks, with a ceiling of €454 (£377) a month. Those with civil service tenure are placed on labour reserve for two years at less than half their previous pay. Once these cushions are exhausted, Greeks are on their own. The monthly ratchet effect will then become painfully evident. It is why the Orthodox Primate Hieronymus II warned that ever further doses of the same "deadly medicine" are becoming dangerous. 07.10 However, as this morning's business pages show, there are still some concerns over life after this latest make-or-break meeting, which kicks-off at around 2pm UK time: