ANNUAL POLICY REPORT 2012 Executive Summary Migration and asylum issues, and, consequently, the content, the goals and the effectiveness of the migration and asylum policy in Greece have remained high on the political agenda, either in the public discourse or in the political debates during the whole year of reference. Either as a priority goal in the pre-election program of the political parties in view of the two general elections held on the 6th of May and the 17th of June or as a priority in the governmental program, asylum and migration policy issues have been used by all political parties for illustrating different political stances and attracting voters. While struggling to manage the impact of the - unprecedented in the post-junta period - fiscal, economic, financial, and social crisis, the Greek state and society are also being tested by daily incidents of extreme anti-migration rhetoric and aggressive behaviour of the members of the parliamentary now, populist-nationalist movement of Golden Dawn. In this national context, under the pressure of the European partners and the international and European commitments the responsible state actors have had during 2012 to shape and implement a balanced and fair for all stakeholders migration and asylum policy. In the field of managing legal migration, the respective policy took the form of set-up and operation of the first “One-Stop-Shop” agencies within the Decemtralised Administrations of the country, with the aim to simplify and accelerate procedures of obtaining or renewing residence permits. Their operation though has not yet redressed the case of third country nationals receiving residence permits with expired dates. Furthermore, the procedure for inviting foreign workers has been simplified due to the limitation of bureaucracy involved and cost-reduction for the applying employer. By virtue of the transposed Directive 2009/50/ΕC via Law 4071/2012 employers have been given the opportunity to attract, through friendly and fast procedures, highly skilled third country nationals as workers. The positive developments regarding legal migration have been downplayed due to the focus of the Media and the public discourse on the disclosure of the Decision to-be-taken by the Plenary Session of the Council of the State on the anti-constitutionality of certain provisions of L. 3838/2010 and the concomitant actions of the government on the issue at stake. The particular provisions concerned the right to access citizenship under certain conditions for the children born in Greece by foreigners legally residing in the country for at least five years and those having concluded six-year attendance in Greek schools, as well as the right of legal migrants to elect and to be elected as representatives at the institutions of first-tier local administration. In the policy field of combating irregular migration, which has been related to issues of Greek citizens’ security, the priorities set by the Government of “National Responsibility” (formed by the parties of New Democracy - ND, Panhellenic Socialist Movement – PASOK and Democratic Left - DIMAR) were strictly followed. As a result, the so called ”Xenios Zeus” operations for the arrest of irregular migrants in Athens and other urban areas and the prevention of third country nationals’ illegal entries at the borders (starting from the 6