The Decentralized Administration of Epirus and Western Macedonia () is one of the seven decentralized administrations of

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

, consisting of the peripheries of

Epirus Epirus () is a Region#Geographical regions, geographical and historical region, historical region in southeastern Europe, now shared between Greece and Albania. It lies between the Pindus Mountains and the Ionian Sea, stretching from the Bay ...

and

Western Macedonia Western Macedonia (, ) is one of the thirteen Regions of Greece, administrative regions of Greece, consisting of the western part of Macedonia (Greece), Macedonia. Located in north-western Greece, it is divided into the regional units of Greece ...

. Seated in

Ioannina Ioannina ( ' ), often called Yannena ( ' ) within Greece, is the capital and largest city of the Ioannina (regional unit), Ioannina regional unit and of Epirus (region), Epirus, an Modern regions of Greece, administrative region in northwester ...

, Epirus, it is currently led by Acting Secretary-General Vasileios Michelakis.

Formation and tasks

Decentralized Administrations were created in January 2011 as part of a far-reaching reform of the country's administrative structure, the

Kallikratis reform The Kallikratis Programme () is the common name of Greek law 3852/2010 of 2010, a major administrative reform in Greece. It brought about the second major reform of the country's administrative divisions following the 1997 Kapodistrias reform. ...

(Law 3852/2010). They enjoy both administrative and financial autonomy and exercise devolved state powers in

urban planning Urban planning (also called city planning in some contexts) is the process of developing and designing land use and the built environment, including air, water, and the infrastructure passing into and out of urban areas, such as transportatio ...

, environmental and

energy policy Energy policies are the government's strategies and decisions regarding the Energy production, production, Energy distribution, distribution, and World energy supply and consumption, consumption of energy within a specific jurisdiction. Energy ...

forestry Forestry is the science and craft of creating, managing, planting, using, conserving and repairing forests and woodlands for associated resources for human and Natural environment, environmental benefits. Forestry is practiced in plantations and ...

migration Migration, migratory, or migrate may refer to: Human migration * Human migration, physical movement by humans from one region to another ** International migration, when peoples cross state boundaries and stay in the host state for some minimum le ...

and

citizenship Citizenship is a membership and allegiance to a sovereign state. Though citizenship is often conflated with nationality in today's English-speaking world, international law does not usually use the term ''citizenship'' to refer to nationalit ...

. Beyond that, they are tasked with supervising the first and second-level

self-governing Self-governance, self-government, self-sovereignty or self-rule is the ability of a person or group to exercise all necessary functions of regulation without intervention from an external authority. It may refer to personal conduct or to any ...

bodies: the

municipalities A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

and

regions In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as areas, zones, lands or territories, are portions of the Earth's surface that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and ...

, in this case the 30 municipalities of Epirus and Western Macedonia, and the two regions themselves.

Characteristics

Covering an area of ''Epirus and Western Macedonia'' is medium-sized by area. With an overall population of , it is however one of the least populated of the seven decentralized administrations in Greece, second only to the Decentralized Administration of the Aegean. In the revised European NUTS nomenclature, the regions of Epirus and Western Macedonia together with the two regions of the

Decentralized Administration of Macedonia and Thrace The Decentralized Administration of Macedonia and Thrace () is one of the seven Decentralized administrations of Greece, decentralized administrations of Greece, consisting of the Administrative regions of Greece, peripheries of Central Macedonia ...

form the first level NUTS region EL5 ( Voreia Ellada).

Secretary-General

The Decentralized Administration is led by a Secretary-General () who is appointed or dismissed by a Cabinet decision upon request of the Greek Minister of Interior, and is therefore considered the senior representative of the national government in the regions. Following the electoral victory of

Syriza The Coalition of the Radical Left – Progressive Alliance (), best known by the syllabic abbreviation SYRIZA ( ; ; a pun on the Greek adverb , meaning "from the roots" or "radically"), is a Centre-left politics, centre-left to Left-wing politi ...

in January 2015, the new Minister for the Interior, Nikos Voutsis, declared that the decentralized administrations would be abolished, and their powers transferred to the regions. Until this reform is formalized, and as the Secretaries-General appointed by the previous administration resigned on 2 February, the decentralized administrations are run by their senior civil servants as Acting Secretaries-General. Current Acting Secretary-General is Vasileios Michelakis.

List of General Secretaries

Since its establishment in 2011, the following General Secretaries have been appointed: * Dimitra Georgakopoulou-Basta, January 2011 – August 2012 * Ilias Theodoridis, August 2012 – August 2013 * Eftaxa Basiliki, August 2013 – February 2015 * Vasileios Michelakis, since February 2015

References

Literature

External links

* {{Decentralized Administrations of Greece 2011 establishments in Greece Epirus (region) Western Macedonia