ANNUAL POLICY REPORT 2012 1.5.3 Promoting action at local level Please describe any relevant activity with the active involvement of local authorities, e.g. addressing integration challenges in disadvantaged urban areas; improving multi-level cooperation between different levels of governance. You should also describe how EU funding is being applied to improve local, more targeted approaches to integration. Capacity building for the development and implementation of integration policies requires the coordination and development of intercultural skills of Member States at all levels of government (national, regional, local). Within this objective, the annual program of 2010 funded by the European Integration Fund, three actions were implemented during the year 2012: a) Action 3.1 "Intercultural training program for staff of local government and the Municipal Police dealing with third country nationals legally residing in Greece", through which the aim was to improve the skills of the staff of local authorities dealing with third countries nationals, allowing them to manage more effectively intercultural issues that arise through the interaction with immigrants and help the latter to fulfil their responsibilities more effectively, b) Action 3.2 “Intercultural training programs for staff of the Ministry of Citizen Protection dealing with third countries nationals”, in which emphasis was placed on education and training of officials of the Police who come into contact with T.C.N.s in areas that will contribute to better management of interculturalism in the daily exercise of their duties. The purpose of this action was both to ensure and protect the human rights of both immigrants and the native population and to preserve public order and safety while maintaining peace in Greek society c) Action 3.3 "Intercultural training programs for civil servants of the Uniform Decentralized Administration Units dealing with third country nationals legally residing in Greece", was set out to improve the skills of public servants in uniform decentralized units of government (regional level) dealing with third countries nationals in order to carry out their duties effectively. In the framework of the Annual Programme 2011, that shall be realized in 2013, the Ministry of Interior shall carry out an action in order to provide the following: technical support to Councils of Migrants Integration (SEM) at the country’s Municipalities, training of stakeholders regarding the formation and the function of these Councils, facilitation of networking and exchange of best practices among the networks members. SEM as a new institution (Law 3852/2010) have been set up in all the municipalities across the country and output of their work is already tangible, especially in terms of active cooperation and participation among the local population, including citizens and migrants. For instance schools for teaching the Greek language, leaflets on migrants rights, leaflets for the awareness on the protection of the environment (municipality of Sykei-Neapolis Thessaloniki), and municipalities that provide social services (municipality of Patra) etc. are a few of the municipalities' activities. 13