MPF facilitates migration dialogues between European Member States and Western Balkans, the Middle East, Central Asia, Silk Routes and South Asia by supporting the Prague Process, with a primary focus on Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries, and the Budapest Process, with a primary focus on the Silk Routes region.
Prague Process
The Prague Process is a migration dialogue and policy initiative fostering partnerships among EU, Schengen area, Eastern Partnership, Western Balkans, Central Asian countries, and Türkiye. Launched in 2009 during the Czech EU Presidency, it began with the endorsement of the PP Joint Declaration, which established a common framework for cooperation on migration management. Participating states have since aligned their policies with EU standards, enhancing legal systems and knowledge exchange.
Now in its fourth phase, the Prague Process is guided by the 2022 Ministerial Declaration and the 2023-2027 Action Plan, adopted during the Fourth Ministerial Conference. This phase emphasises deeper cooperation and operational collaboration, addressing current challenges with a focus on information sharing, capacity building, and digitalisation. The current five-year mandate includes the expansion of the Prague Process Migration Observatory and Training Academy.
MPF supports the comprehensive implementation of the PP Action Plan 2023-2027 through sustaining the three pillars of work and through four Thematic Components – on preventing irregular migration, enhancing return and reintegration, asylum and international protection, legal and labour migration – led by different Prague Process member states.
Budapest Process
Over the past 30 years, the Budapest Process has developed into an influential interregional and inter-governmental dialogue on migration. The Chair, Türkiye, supported by the Co-Chair, Hungary, oversees the daily running of the process, implemented by ICMPD, which serves as the Secretariat of the dialogue. Since 2011, the dialogue has come to master the balance and interplay between political dialogue and operational action, with concrete projects flanking the dialogue and creating tangible outcomes of the established political objectives.
It is structured around three types of meetings: Senior Officials Meetings (SOMs) as the backbone of the dialogue; Thematic groups meetings offer opportunities for cooperation on specific themes; and recently, Reference Group meetings have provided a ‘red thread’ between the varied activities and outcomes of the dialogue. Also, Ministerial Conferences occur periodically and provide an impetus to a new phase of the dialogue with its approved action plan.