strategic vision

Type: Regional consultative process on migration (region covered: Europe)

Formal association with regional or multi-stakeholder organization: None

Established: 2009

Objectives

The objectives of the Prague Process are to generally strengthen cooperation in migration management, and specifically to explore and develop agreed-upon principles and elements for close migration partnerships between the participating countries.

Current Focus

Based on the 4th Ministerial Conference of the Prague Process in 2022, Prague Process formulated a new Action Plan to guide cooperation among the parties in the 2023-2027 period.

The Prague Process Action Plan aims to reflect on and address the consequences of today's most urgent crises, most notably the Russian war against Ukraine and its implications for migration and mobility across the Prague Process region.

Specific actions to be implemented in the framework of Prague Process Action Plan 2023-2027

  • Preventing and fighting irregular migration and migrant smuggling
  • Promoting readmission, voluntary return, and sustainable reintegration
  • Addressing legal migration and mobility with a special emphasis on labour migration
  • Promoting integration of legally residing migrants in their host societies
  • Making migration and mobility positive forces for development
  • Strengthening capacities in the area of asylum and international protection

Country chairing

Current Chair: Czechia
Past Chair: Lithuania (2018-2020), Poland (2011-2017)

    Secretariat

    • Secretariat is termed “project support unit”, and is run by ICMPD with funding from the European Union. In August 2012 - January 2016, Poland and six other leading states (Czechia, Germany, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and Sweden) implemented the EU-funded initiative “Support for the Implementation of the Prague Process and its Action Plan”, also known as the “Prague Process Targeted Initiative” (PP TI), which supported the Prague Process Secretariat. 
    Members

    Members States (50 States)

    • Albania
    • Armenia
    • Austria
    • Azerbaijan
    • Belarus
    • Belgium
    • Bosnia and Herzegovina
    • Bulgaria
    • Croatia
    • Cyprus
    • Czechia
    • Denmark
    • Estonia
    • Finland
    • France
    • Georgia
    • Germany
    • Greece
    • Hungary
    • Ireland
    • Italy
    • Kazakhstan
    • Kosovo (UNSCR 1244/1999)
    • Kyrgyzstan
    • Latvia
    • Liechtenstein
    • Lithuania
    • Luxembourg
    • Malta
    • Moldova
    • Montenegro
    • Netherlands, The
    • North Macedonia
    • Norway
    • Poland
    • Portugal
    • Romania
    • Russian Federation
    • Serbia
    • Slovakia
    • Slovenia
    • Spain
    • Sweden
    • Switzerland
    • Tajikistan
    • Turkey
    • Turkmenistan
    • Ukraine
    • United Kingdom
    • Uzbekistan

    Note: Since its establishment only one new Member State joined the Prague Process - Belarus in 2010.

    Member Organizations (8 organizations)

    The European Commission and its 4 entities:

    One process:

    Observers

    None. International or regional organizations may be invited to observe Prague Process meetings on an ad hoc basis.

    Meetings
    • June 13-15, 2023, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, Identity Week Europe 2023 Conference & Workshop on Latest Trends in Border Management and Security
    • April 27-28, 2023, Lisbon, Portugal, Senior Officials’ Meeting
    • October 24-25, 2022, Prague, Czech Republic, 4th Prague Process Ministerial Conference: “Migration Partnerships – Way forward in times of new challenges”
    • October 23, 2022, Prague, Czech Republic, 3rd Preparatory Senior Officials Meeting
    • May 12-13, 2022, Vienna, Austria, 2nd Preparatory Senior Officials Meeting
    • November 22, 2021, Virtual Event, Senior Officials Meeting
    • June 10, 2021, Virtual Event, 3rd Thematic Consultation on international protection and integration (in preparation for Prague Process Action Plan 2023-2027)
    • May 25, 2021, Virtual Event, 2nd Thematic Consultation on migration and development and labour migration (in preparation for Prague Process Action Plan 2023-2027
    • May 11, 2021, Virtual Event, 1st Thematic Consultation on Preventing Irregular Migration and Readmission, Return and Reintegration (in preparation for Prague Process Action Plan 2023-2027)

    • February 12, 2021, Virtual event, Webinar on demography and migration in the Prague Process region
    • January 28, 2021, Virtual event, Policy Talk on Migration Outlook for 2021: From COVID-19 to the EU’s Pact on Migration and Asylum
    • December 16, 2020, Virtual event, Webinar ‘From refugee crises to labour migration – and back? Lessons for migration policies in the Western Balkans’ 
    • November 23, 2020, Virtual event, The 3rd International Conference on Comprehensive Border Management
    • November 16, 2020, Virtual event, Senior Officials' Meeting
    • October 22, 2020, Virtual event, Policy Talk on the EU’s New Pact on Migration and Asylum: What role for international cooperation?
    • October 6-8, 2020, Virtual event, Online Workshop on Posted Migrant Workers
    • October 6, 2020, Virtual event, Webinar on Building better return and reintegration programs
    • September 24, 2020, Virtual event, Webinar on the EU Framework for Legal Migration: Lessons learned and main challenges
    • September 10, 2020, Virtual event, Webinar on migration and the platform economy
    • July 2, 2020, Virtual event, Webinar on maximizing labour migration outcomes in the Prague Process corridors practices on how to benchmark countries of destination in June 2020 
    • June 18, 2020, Virtual event, Webinar on Assessing the EU’s External Migration Policy
    • June 9, 2020, Virtual event, Online Training Workshop on Identification and Profiling on the Border
    • May 28, 2020, Virtual event, Webinar on the impact of COVID-19 on Ukrainian Labour migrants in the EU
    • May 15, 2020, Virtual event, Webinar on the impact of Corona-crisis on migration 
    • April 16, 2020, Virtual event, Webinar on the possible impact of COVID-19 on the EU’s demand for high-skilled migrants
    • October 8- 10, 2019, Vilnius, Lithuania,Training Workshop on Data Gathering and Exchange
    • September 24-26, 2019, Podgorica, Montenegro,Training on Labor Migration
    • July 23-24, 2019, Vienna, Austria,Research Coordination Meeting
    • June 10-11, 2019 , Bucharest, Romania,Prague Process 10th Anniversary and Senior Officials' Meeting
    • December 17 - 18, 2018, Prague, Czech Republic,Senior Officials' Meeting
    • October 2-3, 2018, Skopje, Macedonia, 1st Workshop on Data Gathering and Exchange
    • June 28-29, 2018, Vienna, Austria, Research Coordination Meeting of the Migration Observatory
    • June 5-7, 2018, Rome, Italy , 1st Thematic Training of the Training Academy “Effective International Protection - Advanced Training for High-Quality Asylum Procedures”
    • April 1-30, 2018, Vienna, Austria, 1st Research Coordination Meeting
    • March 20, 2018, Brussels, Belgium, Mobility Partnership Facility ( MPF) II Steering Group Meeting
    • February 20, 2018, Brussels, Belgium, Strategic Group Meeting
    • December 12, 2017, Warsaw, Poland, Senior Officials' Meeting
    • September 15, 2017, Prague, Czech Republic, Meeting of the Prague Process Strategic Group
    • April 24-26, 2017, Prague, Czech Republic, Workshop on irregular migration
    • June 13, 2017, Brussels, Belgium, Closing Ceremony of the Prague Process TI project .
    • September 20, 2016, Bratislava, Slovakia, 3rd Prague Process Ministerial Conference.
    • September 19, 2016, Bratislava, Slovakia, Senior Officials Meeting.
    • June 15-16, 2016, Cracow, Poland, Senior Officials Meeting.
    • May 25, 2016, Vienna, Austria, Project Steering Committee Meeting.
    • April 5, 2016, Warsaw, Poland, Sixth Core Group Meeting.
    • February 11-12, 2016, Sofia, Bulgaria, National Contact Points meeting on the Knowledge base, data collection and analysis.
    • December 7-8, 2015, Prague, Czech Republic, Senior Officials' Meeting .
    • July 6-7, 2015, Budapest, Hungary, Senior Officials' Meeting.
    • February 12-13, 2015, Lisbon, Portugal, Workshop “Applied Knowledge in a Migration Policy Dialog: data collection, exchange, and application”.
    • October 28-29, 2014, Berlin, Germany, Senior Officials' Meeting.
    • May 6-7, 2014, Yerevan, Armenia, Pilot Project 2 (Legal Migration) and Pilot Project 3 (Migration and Development) Joint Workshop.
    • March 19-20, 2014, Nuremberg, Germany, Pilot Project 4 Final Conference.
    • February 27-28, 2013, Prague, Czech Republic, Senior Officials' Meeting.
    • January 2013, Chisinau, Moldova, Expert-level Workshop on Migration Profiles.
    • November 20, 2012, Warsaw, Poland, Core Group Meeting.
    • November, 2011, Poland, Ministerial Conference.
    Documents

    More documents are available on https://www.pragueprocess.eu/en/resources/repository

    Contact Information

    Prague Process Secretariat
    ICMPD Headquarters
    Gonzagagasse 1, 5th floor, Vienna, Austria
    E-mail: PragueProcess@icmpd.org
    Tel: +43 1 504 4677 0

    Website
    https://www.pragueprocess.eu

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