ANNUAL POLICY REPORT 2012 Cooperation with the Turkish Police Authorties to tackle illegal immigration towards Greece is evaluated as positive, which however does not mean that there is not significant room for improvement. At the operational level, cooperation between competent national authorities across the Evros border area for tackling illegal immigration has been intensified with the exchange of contact points and direct online contact in case of tracking illegal immigrants. This effort has contributed significantly to preventing and combating the entry of illegal immigrants in Greece. Also in the same framework, the organisation of regular bilateral meetings at central and regional-local level has been established and has helped significantly to create an early warning system through the exchange of information on 24 hours basis. At the local level meetings, representatives of Frontex were also invited. Both sides also agreed to conduct joint return flights. This action has not yet been implemented due to a lack of funding from both the EC and Frontex. Further to the above, Greek Police is planning to organize training for Turkish police officers on nationality identification (screening) to improve the identification and, thus, the return process. Between Greece and Turkey a readmission protocol has been signed (April 2002). However, the response of the Turkish side in Greek readmission requests is limited and selective depending on the nationalities of foreigners. At the European Union level, Greece encourages the signing and entry in force of an EU/Turkey Readmission Agreement. Noteworthy is the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between Frontex and Turkey, in which the two sides agreed to cooperate in the exchange of information, experience and practice on the basis of reciprocity. In the memorandum there are mentioned practical issues, which could include the exchange of strategic information, for example statistics on the management of external borders and trends in the methods observed in cross-border crime. Also, the two sides agreed to examine the possibility of increased involvement of the Turkish authorities in risk analysis and the possibility to have a Turkish expert participating in the Frontex Regional Risk Analysis Network. In any case, our country requests the signing of an operational cooperation agreement as well between Frontex and Turkey, which would render the commitment of the neighbouring country, legally binding at international level. Priority IV: Better tackling of abuse of legal migration channels The relevant challenges in the Strategic Response for this sub-section are in particular: IV.1 Prevent an increase in unfounded asylum applications as a direct consequence of introducing visa free regimes in third countries and decrease the number of overstayers in the Schengen area 26