PASOK leader Evangelos Venizelos arrived in Berlin on January 31, for a series of meetings with leading members of the country’s social-democratic party, among which, SPD leader Sigmar Gabriel, SPD candidate for the Chancellery Peer Steinbrück, as well as the Greens party parliamentary group chairman and Chancellery candidate Jürgen Trittin. The key event of Venizelos' visit was a roundtable discussion organized by the SPD think-tank, Friedrich Ebert Foundation, on Greece, Europe and the euro. 

Following the meeting with Venizelos, Peer Steinbrück expressed concern over social conditions in Greece, stressing that the measures undertaken must be combined with boosting of the economy, incentives for the decline of unemployment among young people and the stabilisation of the banking system.

He assured that his party, if it prevails in the upcoming German elections, will follow a different policy, one that is not based solely on the restructuring of budgets.

On his part,Venizelos noted that Steinbrück's message that Greece belongs in the European Union and the Eurozone would facilitate the country's return to financial markets and the recovery of the Greek economy.