Foreign ministry contacts ahead of EU summit

Alternate Foreign Minister Mariliza Xenoyiannakopoulou is due to visit Berlin on Wednesday, at the head of a delegation that will hold meetings with members of the German government on Thursday.

She will be accompanied by Deputy Regional Development Minister Dinos Rovlias, Deputy Education Minister Yiannis Panaretos and Deputy Labour Minister Vassilis Kegeroglou and the general secretaries of the finance, energy and infrastructure ministries.

The meeting forms part of an initiative agreed a year earlier by Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou and German Chancellor Angela Merkel for closer Greek-German economic cooperation.

Xenoyiannakopoulou will next week accompany Foreign Minister Dimitris Droutsas to the EU General Affairs Council in Brussels next Monday, which will prepare for the EU summit on March 24-25. Main items on the agenda of that meeting will be events in north Africa, the Horn of Africa, the peace process in the Middle East and EU strategy for Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Droutsas will also visit Berlin on Tuesday, for talks with his German counterpart Guido Westerwelle and other engagements, while both Droutsas and Xenoyiannakopoulou will be accompanying the prime minister to the European Council in Brussels at the end of the week.