E. VENIZELOS: I met today with Mr. Gabriel, who is the Vice Chancellor, Economy and Development Minister, and SPD Chairman.
The first issue was for SPD to help, with its MPs in the Bundestag, towards the approval, before Christmas, of the extension of the programme by two months – for technical reasons – and Greece’s transition to a new era, through the precautionary line of credit.
His response was very, very positive. We talked about Greece’s real economy, about bilateral cooperation, about the investment opportunities, about the need to create new jobs.
Thus, my conversation with Mr. Gabriel was the natural continuation of the talks I had yesterday with Mr. Schaeuble, which I think reaffirmed the Eurogroup decision in the clearest manner, which sends a very positive message to Greece: a message that we can move in a coordinated manner towards exiting the memorandum and towards turning a new page.
December 11, 2014