EU offers Greece €2bn in development funds 'to create growth and social cohesion'

The European Union has offered Greece €2bn (£1.4bn, $2.2bn) in unused development funds in a bid to avert a cash crisis in Athens.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker made the offer on 20 March, following a late-night meeting between European leaders and the Greek PM in Brussels.

"This will not be used to fill Greece's coffers, but to support efforts to create growth and social cohesion in Greece," Juncker told reporters.

The left-wing government in Athens has called on its creditors to release the final instalment of its bailout package, but it has been pressed to provide more detail on economic reform.

Greece has struggled to come up with a comprehensive list of economic reforms that would be satisfactory to other eurozone members, who control Greece's access to the next instalment of its bailout package.

Bitter relations between Berlin and Athens over the nature of the Greek reform programme has bred uncertainty over the possibility that Greece could leave the eurozone.

Deposit outflows at Greek banks spiked earlier in March as around €300m was withdrawn, the biggest single-day amount since Greece agreed to extend its bailout programme in February. It is thought that in a worst-case scenario, the country could be bankrupt as soon as April.