ANNUAL POLICY REPORT 2012 December, after the reconstitution of the Ministry of Marine and Aegean, provisions of Article 27 of Law 4058/2012 concerning the staffing of the Centre were released for public consultation, while the Center’s supply issues were regulated aiming at its efficient operation102. The integrated border management project, was adopted in 2011 with the aim to combat illegal immigration, provides, inter alia, for the strengthening of border control through the use of additional human resources and means of modern technology. The first stage of implementation took place with the functioning of the Operational Centre for border surveillance and the construction of a deterrent artificial barrier in Evros. The Operational Center for border surveillance, which was inaugurated on February 6, 2012, is a center of automated border surveillance system at the eastern onshore part of the Greek-Turkish frontier. It has the ability to receive image in real time from the surveillance system covering the onshore section of the border between Greece and Turkey, which is then forwarded in real-time to the central Operational Centre of the Aliens Directorate of the Hellenic Police Headquarters. With the aim to tackle illegal immigration, the construction of the abovementioned deterrent artificial barrier (“fence”) in Evros has been completed in 2012. It covers 10.3 kilometres along the border, on Greek territory and is expected to contribute to the prevention of illegal entries of aliens from Turkey to Greece. At the same time, however, the Greek authorities estimate that it conveys a strong message to third countries nationals willing to use Greece as a country of «transit» to the rest of the European Union103. On the subject of the effectiveness of the project, parliamentary questions to the European Commission were posed by Greeks and foreign MEPs, where the Commission had the opportunity to reiterate that it does not consider that the construction would be an effective measure against illegal immigration and for this reason did not accept its funding from the External Borders Fund 104. In 2012, supported by Frontex funding, the Police Departments of Alexandroupolis and of Orestiada were strengthened in their efforts to combat the increased flow of illegal immigration into the area of their responsibility, with a number of seconded police / border guards. This action is applied since 2010, in the framework of the joint Operations Poseidon land 2010, 2011 and 2012, while it was temporarily interrupted on 22/10/2012 due to Frontex failure to finance it. The action is however already planned to be continued on early 2013. Additionally, from July till October, more police officers were 102 http://www.opengov.gr/ythynal/?p=150 103 http://www.hellenicparliament.gr/UserFiles/67715b2c-ec81-4f0c-ad6a476a34d732bd/7814095.pdf 104 http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getAllAnswers.do?reference=E-2012001772&language=ELhttp://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getAllAnswers.do?reference=E-2012003168&language=ELhttp://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getAllAnswers.do?reference=E-2012003168&language=ELhttp://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getAllAnswers.do?reference=E-2012001772&language=ELhttp://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+WQ+E2012-005323+0+DOC+XML+V0//EL 40