The Secretariat-General of the Government was established by Presidential Decree No. 32/2004 “Establishment and Organization of the Secretariat-General of the Government” (Government Gazette, A’ 28) as a stand-alone public service body, directly under the Prime Minister, aiming to support the work of the Prime Minister and the Government in the exercise of their powers, and provide secretarial support to the Council of Ministers, other collective government bodies and inter-ministerial committees, unless these tasks had been assigned to other bodies. Also, the Secretariat was responsible for coordinating and monitoring the implementation of the decisions of these bodies, and exercising, in general, all the powers provided for by the aforementioned Presidential Decree.

In view of modernizing and improving the operation of the executive branch of the Government, the Secretariat-General of the Government was replaced by Article 25 of Law No. 4622/2019 “Executive State: organization, operation and transparency of the Government, government bodies and central public administration” (Government Gazette A’ 133) by a new and upgraded, more agile public entity, the Secretariat-General for Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, which has been entrusted with new, expanded tasks. The Secretariat-General for Legal and Parliamentary Affairs is not just a renaming of the former Secretariat-General of the Government, but a new organisational unit whose fundamental mission, within the framework of the executive state, is to ensure the coherence and coordination of the legislative process and the effective implementation of the Better Regulation principles and tools.

The mission and structure of the Secretariat-General for Legal and Parliamentary Affairs was defined by Decree 98/2020 “Organisation of the Presidency of the Government» and in particular Articles 12 to 15 thereof.