Tourism Resolution For New EU Constitution

European parliamentarian Kostas Hatzidakis recently put forth a resolution for tourism to be included in the European Union’s new constitution. The resolution was adopted by the European Parliament Committee for Regional Policy, Transportation and Tourism.

Mr. Hatzidakis said the relevant European Parliament committee returned to the tourism issue after an initial rejection from the constitution assembly, which is drafting the new constitution. The most recent draft covers new sectors of activities, such as sports and space but not tourism. The new resolution adopted for the inclusion of tourism must now go to the intergovernmental conference, which will decide on whether or not the inclusion of tourism within the competence of the European Union is acceptable.

To justify the resolution, the adopting committee reported that it is unacceptable for an activity such as tourism, which constitutes one of the most important EU industry sectors, to be ignored and have the competitiveness of tourism enterprises within Europe affected in a negative way.