In a move that can be seen as a response to the times, the Greek government is introducing new ministries and restructuring existing ones.
The Tsipras government has moved to create a Digital Policy Ministry, Migration Policy Ministry, an Energy Ministry and restructuring the Tourism Ministry, which will now be independent.
Given the importance of tourism for the Greek economy, the Ministry of Tourism, which had been merged with other ministries in 2015, will once again become an independent ministry, the importance of which was not missed on the Alternate Tourism Minister Elena Kountoura who stressed that the government aims at strengthening the role of tourism as a basic pillar of the Greek economy and further promoting Greece in foreign markets.
"We are promoting Greece as a unique tourist destination, the most competitive one in Europe in terms of value for money," she stressed.
Changes to the composition of government ministries, with the creation of four new ministries and the renaming and reorganisation of others, will be made through two presidential decrees drawn up by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and approved by the Council of State on Monday.
The new Migration Policy Ministry will be formed of secretariats from the Ministry of the Interior and Administrative Reconstruction, namely the Migration Policy and Reception secretariats. The staff, positions and responsibilities of the independent asylum services, authorities for refugees and migration policy financial services directorate will be transferred to the Migration Policy Ministry from the former Interior Ministry.
The Digital Policy Ministry will be created from the general secretariat for digital policy and staffed with the transferred employees of the same secretariat.
The Shipping and Island Policy Ministry will be renamed the Shipping, Transport and Island Policy Ministry and a general secretariat for transport will be formed within the ministry, with the transfer of all staff, positions and responsibilities of the Transport General Directorate and the Road Safety General Directorate of the former Transport and Networks Ministry, as well as the supervision of all entities involved in transport and previously supervised by the Infrastructure, Transport and Networks Ministry.
