Dendias expresses frustration at law banning shops from opening Sundays

Development Minister Nikos Dendias on Friday expressed his aggravation at a decision by the country's highest administrative court to impose a temporary ban on a law allowing shops to open on Sundays, the latest in a series of court rulings that essentially reverse reforms that Greece has pledged to international creditors.

"If you ask me whether the ruling creates problems for us or not, I have to be honest, the ruling creates extreme problems" Dendias told Alpha channel, adding that he did not understand how shops opening on Sundays could be construed as a violation of the Constitution.

"There is an intervention by the judiciary in the way that the government is trying to legislate and to organize the course of the Greek economy," he added.

"As a minister and as a former grocery errands boy, I wasn't at all pleased with the ruling by the Council of State," Dendias said.

Fotini Pipili, another New Democracy lawmaker, commented on the same issue earlier on Friday, telling Skai that judges "should be inside the community."