Coping with a fundamental rights emergency – The situation of people crossing the Greek border in an irregular manner employment support. The project was implemented in 2009. However, the decision to fund the proposal was only taken in August 2010 and the first part of the funds (80%) transferred in December 2010, the rest still being outstanding at the time of writing this report. Figure 7 provides an illustration of the timelines. Figure 7: Timeline for disbursing 2009 ERF funds to NGO Praksis 01/01/09 29/12/09 29/01/10 26/08/10 8.2 Mio EUR for Greece under ERF 2009 Publication of Call for tender – Application NGO PRAKSIS NGO requested to revise cost 16/12/10 22/12/10 Contract signed Payment 80% of 196,000 EUR – deadline 29/01/10 08/09/10 15/12/10 NGO requested contract and prepayment NGO delivered revised proposal 20% after evaluation Note: ERF = EU Refugee Fund 53 Source: NGO Praksis The NGO had to advance all costs, although like most Greek NGOs it has limited capacity to advance funds. Therefore, such administrative delays have severe implications on the projects. Although additional human resources had been assigned to the Ministry of Health to process the 2010 emergency funds, these resources did not appear to be adequate to overcome past bottlenecks. At this time of stretched resources, a FRONTEX‐like hands‐on approach could provide valuable real time support to the Ministry, for example, by directly shadowing colleagues working in the Ministry of Health. Operational support Financial and operational resources can also be allocated by the two key agencies for EU cooperation in migration management: FRONTEX54 and the EASO, established more recently in 2010.55 While FRONTEX has already been providing significant operational support to Greece over a considerable period of time, the EASO has sent ‘operational planning teams’ to Greece to develop a plan for the implementation of the Greek Action Plan with EU‐support. The support provided by FRONTEX through the deployment of RABITs in Evros is generally seen as a very effective way of providing assistance. The hands‐on approach taken by FRONTEX has been successful in enhancing the capacity to guard the border and to screen new arrivals. It is 53 More information at www.praksis.gr/. 54 FRONTEX was established by Council Regulation (EC) No. 2007/2004 of 26 October 2004 establishing a European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders of the Member States of the European Union (OJ 2004 L 349). 55 The EASO was established by Regulation (EU) No. 439/2010 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 May 2010 establishing a European Asylum Support Office (OJ 2010 L 132). 38