ANNUAL POLICY REPORT 2012 modified or replaced by another law and that any deviation would be an illegal act or even punishable by law 87. The National Commission for Human Rights (NCHR), an independent advisory body to the State for the protection of Human Rights, raised the same objections 88. Furthermore, in the context of parliamentary scrutiny, five questions were submitted in the Greek parliament. Government represented clarified that until publication of the decision of the Plenary of the Council of State they were not about to take any related initiatives89 and that the new law would include transitional provisions, which, without circumventing the Council of State’s decision, would provide solutions to problems that it might create both for persons who have already registered in the population registry based on the contested provisions, and for those for which the procedure on the basis of these provisions is still pending90. It was highlighted that, in every legislative initiative, citizenship would be granted as the eventual culmination of the foreigner’s successful integration process. Finally, great reactions on behalf of the municipal authorities91 and local actors was caused by the initiative of the Minister of Interior to address them a request for gathering data on the children of natives and foreigners admitted to municipal kindergartens and nurseries, following a question submitted in Parliament on October 1st by a MP of the “Golden Dawn”92. After the large publicity given to the issue, the Minister clarifies by press release that the request for information was strictly limited to the statistical representation and that in no way concerned personal information of children and added that citizenship is not a criterion for admitting children in municipal kindergartens and nurseries93. 3.7 Managing Migration and Mobility 3.7.1 Visa Policy For the promotion of tourism to the islands of the Eastern Aegean and with the assent of the European Commission, a pilot program to encourage short tourist arrivals from Turkey (daily-trip) was applied from 7 June 2012 to 30 September 2012. The above pilot process applied to all holders of travel documents who are in possession of a visa and move directly from Turkey to Greece, unless incriminating evidence is found against them or they are not registered in the Schengen Information System (SIS). The program applied only to Rhodes, Kos, Samos, Chios and Mytilene as it was found that these 87 http://www.synigoros.gr/resources/dtik.pdf 88 http://www.nchr.gr/document.php?category_id=143&document_id=1512 89 http://www.hellenicparliament.gr/UserFiles/67715b2c-ec81-4f0c-ad6a-476a34d732bd/7872936.pdf 90 http://www.hellenicparliament.gr/UserFiles/67715b2c-ec81-4f0c-ad6a-476a34d732bd/7893230.pdf 91 http://www.tovima.gr/society/article/?aid=478979 92 http://www.tovima.gr/politics/article/?aid=478909 93 http://www.ypes.gr/el/MediaCenter/Minister/PressReleases/?id=fdf545fb-475b-4957-b91b99a60603355d 37