Energy, infrastructure and banks were the main course of Schäuble and Venizelos

The discussion menu between Schäuble and Venizelos was all but plain and simple. Leaving Athens for a quick trip, the Greek Finance minister took the best privatization pieces with him in order to …serve them to his German counterpart.

In such a relaxed atmosphere the debt crisis developments (austerity measures, rescue plans, new loan, rating agencies etc.) were not sufficient to affect their appetite and make them talk about investments and growth, which both constitute necessary conditions for achieving the objectives of the memorandum, in order for Greece to return as soon as possible to the markets.

Schäuble seemed long prepared for this meeting. Only a few days ago he publicly expressed his admiration for Greece’s energy potentials. His reference alone to the inexhaustible produce of solar energy in Greece, which could supply Germany too, shows his ideas about our country.

And it was Schäuble who arranged Venizelos’ meeting with the German industrialists, in order to begin the first German investments in Greece in the post-memorandum era.

So, Venizelos quickly invited his top aides for his contacts with foreign governments, SOE president Giorgos Zanias and special secretary for privatizations Giorgos Christodoulakis, to join him on this trip.

The "appetizer" was the OTE package. Venizelos wanted to persuade the Germans of Deutsche Telekom to obtain the remaining 5% of the company, which will be left in the hands of the Greek state after the sale of the 10% package to the Germans. His goal is a profitable deal, in order not to sell it through the Athens stock market at the extremely low prices of a session.

The Greek team found that the way was already paved in their discussions on a series of state assets of German interest: the contract extension with Hochtief for El. Venizelos and other regional airports, PPC and the investment in solar energy production (the …main course), while the Postal Savings Bank and the Post Office completed the "menu" of privatizations favored by the Germans.

However, the Greek delegation had another objective: they wanted to add the Germans in the plan for cooperating and investing in other sectors, in order to ensure investor interest required to achieve beneficial and profitable privatizations, as the expected sales storm threatens to sharply decrease prices and state revenue. Their proposal to the Germans included TRAINOSE, LARKO, DEPA and Elliniko.