Greece seeks loan without listing reforms

ATHENS, Greece — Greece, running out of money and under a tight deadline from European leaders, requested a threeyear loan on Wednesday from the eurozone’s bailout fund as the country and its creditors began what could be a last effort to avert a historic rupture.

But in making a formal request for new aid that it needs to avoid further defaults on its debts, Greece did not provide any details of what it would do in return to show it is serious about strengthening the government’s finances. The government said it would provide those specifics Thursday.

Nor did it publicly describe the size of the loan it was seeking. Some economists have estimated that Greece will need about $55 billion or possibly more.

Until Athens submits that proposal Thursday, the deadline that the eurozone creditors have set, it remains to be seen whether Greece can finally come close enough to meeting demands for pension cuts, tax increases and other changes to secure a new bailout deal. Negotiations have gone on for five months.

Without a deal, which European leaders said they would decide on by Sunday night, Greece seems destined to stumble out of the euro currency union and face an uncertain future as a bankrupt standalone economy.

“The last-chance procedure has just started,” Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council, told the European Parliament on Wednesday, shortly after Athens sent its formal request for a new bailout. If granted, it would be Greece’s third bailout since it was crippled by the financial crisis more than five years ago.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras took his case to the European Parliament on Wednesday. In a defiant speech, he said his government was determined to reach a “viable agreement” with the country’s creditors.

“We want an agreement that will give a final end to the crisis and show there is light at the end of the tunnel,” Tsipras told the packed chamber in Strasbourg, France.