[3] They enjoy both administrative and financial autonomy[1] and exercise devolved state powers in urban planning, environmental and energy policy, forestry, migration and citizenship.

The Decentralized Administration is led by a Secretary-General (Γενικός Γραμματέας) who is appointed or dismissed by a Cabinet decision upon request of the Greek Minister of Interior,[5] and is therefore considered the senior representative of the national government in the regions.

In January 2014, Manolis Angelakas (Nea Dimokratia), who previously had been responsible for Peloponnese, Western Greece and the Ionian, was appointed Secretary-General.

[6] Following the electoral victory of Syriza 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.