The Decentralized Administration of Thessaly and Central Greece ( el, Αποκεντρωμένη Διοίκηση Θεσσαλίας – Στερεάς Ελλάδας) is one of the seven decentralized administrations of

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders wi ...

, consisting of the peripheries of

Thessaly Thessaly ( el, Θεσσαλία, translit=Thessalía, ; ancient Thessalian: , ) is a traditional geographic and modern administrative region of Greece, comprising most of the ancient region of the same name. Before the Greek Dark Ages, Thes ...

and

Central Greece Continental Greece ( el, Στερεά Ελλάδα, Stereá Elláda; formerly , ''Chérsos Ellás''), colloquially known as Roúmeli (Ρούμελη), is a traditional geographic region of Greece. In English, the area is usually called Central ...

. Seated in

Larissa Larissa (; el, Λάρισα, , ) is the capital and largest city of the Thessaly region in Greece. It is the fifth-most populous city in Greece with a population of 144,651 according to the 2011 census. It is also capital of the Larissa regiona ...

, Thessaly, it is currently led by Acting Secretary-General Ilias Tseligas.

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

urban planning Urban planning, also known as town planning, city planning, regional planning, or rural planning, is a technical and political process that is focused on the development and design of land use and the built environment, including air, water, ...

environmental A biophysical environment is a biotic and abiotic surrounding of an organism or population, and consequently includes the factors that have an influence in their survival, development, and evolution. A biophysical environment can vary in scal ...

and

energy policy Energy policy is the manner in which a given entity (often governmental) has decided to address issues of energy development including energy conversion, distribution and use as well as reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in order to contr ...

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

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 "relationship between an individual and a state to which the individual owes allegiance and in turn is entitled to its protection". Each state determines the conditions under which it will recognize persons as its citizens, and ...

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

self-governing __NOTOC__ Self-governance, self-government, 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 form of ...

bodies: the

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

and

regions In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...

, in this case the 50 municipalities of Thessaly and Central Greece, and the two regions themselves.

Characteristics

Covering an area of , ''Epirus and Western Macedonia'' is one of the largest of the seven decentralized administrations, second only to the Decentralized Administration of Macedonia and Thrace. With an overall population of ,it is however only medium-sized by population. In the revised European NUTS nomenclature, the regions of Thessaly and Central Greece together with the three regions of the Decentralized Administration of Peloponnese, Western Greece and the Ionian form the first level NUTS region EL6 (

Kentriki Ellada Kentriki Ellada ( el, Κεντρική Ελλάδα), meaning Central Greece, is a first level NUTS division of Greece created for statistical purposes by the European Union. Until 2014, it encompassed the five regions Epirus, Ionian Island ...

Secretary-General

The Decentralized Administration is led by a Secretary-General () who is appointed or dismissed by a

Cabinet Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to: Furniture * Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers * Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets * Filin ...

decision upon request of the Greek

Minister of Interior An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and identification, emergency ...

, 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 ( el, Συνασπισμός Ριζοσπαστικής Αριστεράς – Προοδευτική Συμμαχία, Synaspismós Rizospastikís Aristerás – Proodeftikí Simachía), ...

in January 2015, the new Minister for the Interior,

Nikos Voutsis Nikos Voutsis ( el, Νίκος Βούτσης; born 4 March 1951) is a Greek politician and MP who served as the Minister of the Interior and Administrative Reconstruction from January 2015 to August 2015, and as President of the Hellenic Parlia ...

, 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 Ilias Tseligas.

References

Literature

External links

* {{Decentralized Administrations of Greece 2011 establishments in Greece Thessaly Central Greece