Greece and Germany will further intensify their bilateral cooperation within the scope of the German-Greek partnership. This was agreed today (17 March 2011) by German and Greek government delegations headed by Wolf-Ruthart Born, State Secretary of the Federal Foreign Office, and Mariliza Xenogiannakopoulou, Greece’s Alternate Minister of Foreign Affairs.

During the meeting, the results to date of the German-Greek partnership were evaluated and further concrete cooperation projects were agreed upon - among others, in the fields of

- Health: inter alia, hospital management, pharmaceuticals and health care;
- Environment: waste water treatment;
- Climate/energy: renewable energies;
- Social affairs: pension insurance systems.

The German-Greek partnership was established in March 2010 by Chancellor Merkel and Prime Minister Papandreou and was reaffirmed by Federal Foreign Minister Westerwelle and the Greek Foreign Minister Droutsas in November 2010.

The aim of the German-Greek partnership agreement is enhanced cooperation on issues of importance to Germany and Greece. The cooperation encompasses most spheres of government action and is intended, first and foremost, to boost economic development in the two countries. During the talks between the delegations, there were therefore simultaneous meetings at state secretary level between the Federal Economics/Finance Ministries, the Federal Labour and Social Affairs Ministry, the Federal Education Ministry, the Federal Health Ministry, the Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Affairs and the Federal Environment Ministry and their Greek counterpart departments, as well as talks between representatives of the two business confederations BDI and SEV.

The German-Greek partnership covers the spheres of environmental, climate and energy policy, civil protection, economic and social dialogue, research policy, migration, asylum and integration policy, education, civil society contacts and cultural exchange, cooperation in the fields of tourism, health and transport policy.