Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras and German Chancellor Angela Merkel will have a working lunch in Berlin on Tuesday, September 23, it was announced on Wednesday.
The Secretariat General of Information and Communication announced that the meeting was finalized yesterday, following a communication between the two offices, noting that the meeting was decided by the two leaders when they met on the sidelines of the July 16 Summit.
Samaras and Merkel had agreed to meet again in September to discuss the prospects of the Greek economy and the course of the Greek program, the formal announcement added.
An announcement on the Greek Prime Minister’s visit to the German capital was also made in today’s scheduled press briefing in Berlin by deputy government spokesperson Christiane Wirtz.
Sources in Athens, Greece, said the two leaders would discuss “the Greek economy’s prospects and the Greek program’s progress.” In Berlin the rendezvous was described as a “routine meeting.”
However, it promises to be anything but routine for Samaras, who has spent the past few days on the phone with a number of key European officials. The prime minister has stepped up his contacts due to concerns within the government about the troika’s imminent return to Athens. The fatigued coalition is not prepared to agree to lenders’ demands for further pension and labor reforms, which could jeopardize the review or at least mean that the process will drag on for much longer than the Samaras administration would want.
Samaras is also expected to brief Merkel on the challenge the coalition is facing in ensuring a successor to President Karolos Papoulias can be elected next year. If New Democracy and PASOK fail to find the 180 MPs they need, Greece will have to hold general elections.
The meeting will take place at 12:30 (local time) and will be followed by a press conference.
(source: ana-mpa)
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