Tourism Law in Europe

7 the Regional Units, transfer of resources and necessary arrangements”, which made a significant contribution towards the transfer of competences and financial resources to the regional tourism agencies. Law No. 3270/2004 established the Ministry of Tourism Development, which became responsible for supervising the Greek National Tourism Agency. In 2009, a major development was the merger of two ministries, the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Tourism Development, through PD 186/2009, which aimed to introduce a novel kind of dynamic, shared between the two domains and based on the comparative advantage that each bears for Greece. In 2010, the Ministry of Tourism Development was abolished. Presidential Decree 15/2010 led to the creation of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, which was given the same powers reserved for the Ministry of Tourism Development before that, and the Secretariat-General for Tourism was integrated into the new Ministry. On 21 July 2012, PD 25/2012 established the Ministry of Tourism, which implements tourism policy as part of the Greek government’s policy and also plans tourism development initiatives. The Ministry of Tourism has recently been reconstituted with PD 127/2017, titled “Organisation of the Ministry of Tourism” (GG A´ 157/20-10-2017). According to Article 1 PD 127/2017, the Ministry of Tourism’s mission is: a) setting out and making tourism policy, planning tourism development within the framework of the overall government policy and formulating and promoting the necessary institutional or other arrangements; b) cooperating with line Ministries for the harmonisation of policies that affect tourism and the coordination of actions to encourage tourism development, the creation of a safe environment for investment initiatives in the field and the improvement of the quality and competitiveness of the country’s tourism; c) representing the country in international organisations and at the interstate level when tourism is concerned, as well as signing international contracts that involve the tourism sector and bilateral agreements on tourism cooperation; d) upgrading the tourist services provided through the implementation of educational and vocational training programmes. IV.1.2. Greek National Tourism Organisation The Greek National Tourism Organisation is responsible for regulating the country’s