The Prague Process is a targeted migration dialogue and a policy process promoting migration partnerships among the countries of the European Union, Schengen Area, Eastern Partnership, Western Balkans, Central Asia, Russia and Turkey.
The Process originated from the EU financed project “Building Migration Partnerships”, and was initiated during the Czech EU Presidency at the 1st Prague Process Ministerial Conference (back then “Building Migration Partnerships”) with the endorsement of the Prague Process Joint Declaration in April 2009.
In the Joint Declaration, serving as a common political framework, the participating states agreed to strengthen co-operation in migration management, to explore and develop agreed principles and elements for close migration partnerships between their countries, following a comprehensive, balanced, pragmatic and operational approach, and respecting the rights and human dignity of migrants and their family members, as well as of refugees.
The main principles and cooperation areas, set by the Joint Declaration and by the adopted at the 2nd Ministerial Conference Prague Process Action Plan 2012-2016 include:
- Preventing and fighting illegal migration;
- Readmission, voluntary return and sustainable reintegration;
- Legal migration with a special emphasis on labour migration;
- Integration of legally residing migrants;
- Migration, mobility and development;
- Strengthening capacities in the area of asylum and international protection.
All six cooperation areas to
In 2015 was carried out an evaluation of the Prague Process Action Plan implementation in the period 2012 -2014, and the Evaluation report was endorsed by the SOM members at the Senior Officials’ meeting held in Prague
The current stage of the Prague Process is shaped by the Bratislava Ministerial Declaration, endorsed at the 3rd Prague Process Ministerial Conference in Bratislava
The European Commission financially supports the implementation of the Action Plan through the Mobility Partnership Facility, and its Strand C "Prague Process: Dialogue, Analyses and Training in Action".
Key documents:
Prague Process Action Plan 2012-2016 (Poznan, November 2011)
"Building Migration Partnerships" Joint Declaration (Prague, April 2009)
The discussion paper Five years of the Prague Process: Taking stock and moving forward
Bratislava Ministerial Declaration (Bratislava, September 2016)