Angela Merkel

After posting unexpectedly high growth (3.67 percent) on Friday, the Greek benchmark headed south on Monday, as investors were not convinced by the FTSE decision to allow the local market to keep its developed label (for now), given that it had been demoted to emerging status by MSCI and S&P Dow Jones.

Prime Minister Antonis Samaras was in talks with his aides over the weekend in a bid to finalize Greece’s arguments ahead of a crucial meeting in Berlin on Tuesday with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, from whom he hopes to secure a message of support ahead of the troika’s return to Athens later this month.

Prime Minister Antonis Samaras visited Azerbaijan on Friday for talks on energy security and Greece’s involvement in an international gas pipeline but his aides remained in Athens to prepare for Tuesday’s crucial meeting between the Greek premier and German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin.

Prime Minister Antonis Samaras will travel to Berlin on Tuesday, almost 10 months to the day since he was last in the German capital, for one of the most crucial meetings of his premiership as he seeks to find common ground with Chancellor Angela Merkel on Greece’s adjustment program and further debt relief.

Prime Minister Antonis Samaras will meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel for talks on the progress of the Greek program in Berlin on Tuesday, September 23.

The meeting, which will take place at 12.30 (local time), was announced Wednesday by Germany's deputy government spokeswoman Christiane Wirtz. It will be followed by a press briefing.

Chancellor Angela Merkel vowed Sunday to resolutely combat anti-Semitism, speaking at a rally to condemn a spate of hate speech and attacks against Jews in Germany during the latest Gaza conflict.

EU Council President Herman van Rompuy has announced the bloc put off for "a few days" the enforcement of new measures against Russia.

He tied the sanctions to the situation in Ukraine's Donbass region, where pro-Russian rebels signed last week a truce agreement with the government in Kiev.

International Monetary Fund (IMF) head Christine Lagarde urged Germany to increase investments to help spur the eurozone's flagging economic recovery, adding that the bloc as a whole needed to make more structural reforms.

The presidents of NATO allies Turkey and the United States have agreed on a joint roadmap concerning “the parallel structure” which is subject to a widening inquiry into the alleged wiretapping of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, while discussing the threat posed by ISIL militants during NATO talks in Wales.

A conference on the economic prospects and European perspectives of the Western Balkans last week in Berlin concluded with an upbeat statement from German Chancellor Angela Merkel about the European future of all the countries in the region.

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