Greece is set for an uphill struggle this week launching sell-offs and tax system reforms to meet European Union and IMF conditions for bailing it out.
A warning from Eurogroup chairman Jean-Claude Juncker that Greece will lose sovereignty and jobs to meet those criteria has enraged unions. Any suggestion of foreign intervention in running the country is an incendiary political issue that will make implementing reforms even tougher.
Public sector union ADEDY, which has launched crippling strikes and protests, reacted angrily to his comments.
ADEDY President Spyros Papaspyros said Juncker was out of line, "Mr Juncker interferes in the internal affairs of a country, provokes European rules and is an embarrassment for the country whose government tolerates him."
Juncker's comments could trigger more of the anti-austerity street protests that have roiled the country for months as Greece stays stuck in its worst recession since the 1970s with a youth unemployment rate of more than 40 percent.
"The sovereignty of Greece will be massively limited," Juncker told Germany's Focus magazine in an interview released on Sunday. Teams of experts from around the euro zone would be heading to Athens, he said.
"One cannot be allowed to insult the Greeks. But one has to help them. They have said they are ready to accept expertise from the euro zone," Juncker said.
