Sustainable Tourism Law

116 SUSTAINABLE TOURISM LAW It was not until the Maastricht Treaty was approved, on February 7, 1992, that we could see a specific reference to tourism. Article 3, letter “t”, recognizes that “in order to carry out the tasks that have been assigned in the European Community action, measures in the field of tourism shall be included in the conditions and according to the rhythm foreseen in the Treaty”. However, this inclusion should not be misleading, since the introduction of tourism in the EU primary law did not mean that its own legal base had been granted. Indeed, it was only a statement of willingness to act, recognizing that it was an important subject whereby to achieve the objectives set out in Article 2 of the Treaty. When the Economic and Social Committee adopted (95/C 301/15) the Green Paper 3 , it became clear that the lack of legal basis in the EU Treaty was a huge damper to the Community’ s policy in terms of tourism and proposed to add a new title to the Treaty. When the Treaty of Lisbon came into effect, the importance of tourism and specifically the competence to support, coordinate and supplement the actions of the Member States was recognized. Article 195 TFEU (Title XXII) provides: “1. The Union shall complement the action of the Member States in the tourism sector, in particular by promoting the competitiveness of Union companies in that sector. To that end, Union action shall be aimed at: (a) encouraging the creation of a favourable environment for the development of undertakings in this sector. (b) promoting cooperation between the Member States, particularly by the exchange of good practice. 2. The European Parliament and the Council under the ordinary legislative procedure, shall establish specific measures to complement the actions carried out in Member States to achieve the objectives mentioned in this Article, excluding any harmonization of the provisions laws and regulations of the Member States ”. However, the fact that an explicit competence in tourism did not exist until that point does not mean that the European Union has not had an impact on 3 COM (95) 97 final, Brussels, April 4, 1995.