Brussels, 22/11/2013 (Agence Europe) - After a meeting with the Greek prime minister, Antonis Samaras, in Berlin on Friday 22 November, the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, encouraged the Greek government to keep up the work and implement its budget and reform commitments.
Reuters says the German chancellor said that the talks had shown that it would not be easy, but it was do-able. She encouraged Greece to respect its commitment so that it can receive the outstanding aid of €1 billion. Commenting on the viability of the Greek debt, Samaras said that any decision on extra aid would not be taken until there was official confirmation of the existence of a primary budget surplus (not including debt repayments), which would not happen until May 2014 at the earliest. He denied there was a gap in the financing of the current aid programme. (MB/transl.fl)