Samaras in Berlin on Monday, meeting with Merkel on Tuesday

Prime Minister Antonis Samaras leaves on Monday for Berlin to attend a forum organized by 'Die Welt' newspaper and where he will be the guest speaker at a dinner for the forum attendants on Monday night, together with European Central Bank (ECB) president Mario Draghi.
Samaras will also have an informal meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday afternoon, preceded by a private meeting earlier with former German foreign minister and vice-chancellor Hans Dietrich Genscher.
The forum will be addressed by Merkel, European Council president Martin Schulz, European Commission vice-president Olli Rehn, the Social Democratic Party's (SPD) candidate for chancellor Peer Steinbruck, Bundesbank president Jens Weidmann, British Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne, Spanish finance and competitiveness minister Luis de Guindos, and German economy minister Philipp Roesler, finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble and foreign minister Guido Westerwelle. The prime minister will be accompanied by Development, Competitiveness, Infrastructure, Transport and Networks minister Costis Hatzidakis and deputy minister Notis Mitarakis. Samaras returns to Athens on Tuesday evening.

Chancellor Merkel’s spokesman

Prime Minister Antonis Samaras will meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin on Tuesday, Chancellor spokesman Steffen Seibert said on Friday. He said they would "exchange views unofficially" at a meeting not open to the press. Both leaders will be attending an economic forum sponsored by the daily Die Welt in Berlin but the agenda of their private meeting was not disclosed.

"It is natural to take advantage of the opportunity to note once again the progress achieved by Greece in anything related to its efforts for reform," Seibert said, adding that "the chancellor and the prime minister have kept in frequent and intensive communication over the past few months."

SOURCE: ATHENS NEWS AGENCY