Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister Evangelos Venizelos traveled to Berlin yesterday (10.12) and met with the Minister of Finance Wolfgang. During joint statements after the meeting, Schaeuble said, "Greece has left difficult years behind it. These years are successful; the reforms made a lot of progress. Today, Greece is, economically and as regards fiscal indicators, in a better position that most thought possible three of four years ago. This shows that the course of solidarity and reforms was the right one. It was a tiring path for the Greek people, but it was worth it."

Speaking about the Eurogroup's decision to grant Greece a two-month extension to complete its fiscal adjustment programme, the German minister said that "the targets that have been met are encouraging for everyone," and asserted that "Greece can continue to depend on the solidarity of Europe and Germany."

In his statements, Venizelos said that fulfilling the programme would bring the completion of the troika's evaluation so that the country can "transition to a completely different status: the status of a line of credit, protective armor for the Greek economy, but under completely different conditions," he said. Meanwhile, the Eurogroup Working Group completed a teleconference meeting to discuss Greece's smooth transition to the preventive line of credit (enhanced conditions credit line, ECCL) on Wednesday evening.