Europe Hails Greek Austerity Will as Merkel Ventures to Athens

European finance ministers saluted Greece’s determination to trim its budget and reshape its recession-wracked economy, smoothing the way for German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s trip to Athens with a commitment to keeping the country in the euro.

European officials paired the encouragement with a demand that Greece commit to a list of 89 policy steps before an Oct. 18-19 leaders’ summit, and left open whether the next 31 billion-euro ($40 billion) loan installment would be paid out in one go or dribbled out in smaller pieces.

Creditors muffled doubts about Greece’s fiscal health hours before Merkel, the dominant figure in Europe’s bailout politics, set off to brave anti-austerity protests on her first trip to Greece since the crisis broke out in October 2009.

“I’m impressed by the performance of the Greek government, by the willingness of the coalition parties in Greece to undertake whatever will have to be undertaken in order to respond to our wishes,” Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker told reporters in Luxembourg late yesterday after chairing a meeting of euro finance chiefs.

Read more: Europe Hails Greek Austerity Will as Merkel Ventures to Athens - SFGate