News

The Prague Process Senior Officials’ Meeting (SOM), constituting the final SOM within the implementation of the Prague Process Targeted Initiative (PP TI), took place in Vilnius on 24-25 November 2016, gathering 46 participants from 25 states, the European Commission Directorate General for Home Affairs (DG Home), as well as ICMPD and UNHCR. This SOM marked the opening to the future cooperation as requested by the Bratislava Ministerial Declaration, endorsed by the 3rd Prague Process Ministerial Conference, which Slovakia hosted on 19-20 September 2016, and aimed at proposing a future vision and concrete work plan for this period while also endorsing all results achieved so far.

On 25 October 2016, a Closing Workshop of the Prague Process Objective 2 - Knowledge Base on migration took place in Prague, Czech Republic. A 1-day Workshop gathered representatives of 16 participating states, EUROMED Migration IV, UNHCR, and ICMPD in its capacity of the Prague Process Secretariat. The meeting was dedicated to the discussion of the current state of the Prague Process Knowledge base on migration as well as its future in a new format, namely the Training and Analytical Centre (TAC) composed of a Migration Observatory and a Training Academy.

The Prague Process Senior Officials’ Meeting (SOM), constituting the fourth preparatory SOM for the 3rd Ministerial Conference, took place in Bratislava on 19 September 2016, gathering 79 participants from 38 states, the European Commission Directorate General for Home Affairs (DG Home), the Council of the European Union, European External Action Service (EEAS), Frontex, as well as ICMPD and UNHCR.

The 10th issue of the Prague Process Quarterly Review, which covers the period April - June 2016,  reports on the Final Seminar of the Pilot Project 7 on Asylum and International Protection, presents the main outcomes of the Cracow Senior Officials' Meeting, provides with an overview of the completed Pilot Projects 5 to 7, and shortly introduces the migration situation and the key statistics of the Republics of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, more on which our readers can find from the published Migration Profiles Light. The new issue of the Quarterly Review, as well as all previous issues, is available for download in English and in Russian. To see all issues please go to the section "Quarterly Review" under News & Events.

The third Prague Process Ministerial Conference, held by the Slovak Presidency on 20 of September in Bratislava, resulted in the adoption of the Joint Declaration, which gave a mandate to the Process for the years 2017 - 2021.

The Final Joint Declaration as endorsed by the Heads of the Prague Process participating states is now available for download in English and in Russian.

On 20 September the third Prague Process Ministerial Conference was held in Bratislava under the Slovak Presidency of the Council of the EU. Gathered at the Conference Ministers, Chairmen of migration services and high level officials reassured their commitment to the Process, addressed the most pressing migration issues and have moved towards decisions which have the strength to positively shape tomorrow's migration policies. 

Following the agreement reached during  the Senior Officials’ Meeting (Budapest, July 2015) last year on publication of the developed Migration Profiles even if official endorsement has not been obtained within a period of three months after a formal submission to migration authorities of given state, as many as five Migration Profiles Light of the Republic of Belarus, Kyrgyz Republic, Republic of Tajikistan, Republic of Turkmenistan and the Russian Federation were published on the Prague Process website.

All five profiles have been prepared by the Secretariat of the Prague Process based on the available public sources and, where applicable, information provided by a given state within PP TI activities, and are published as draft documents, which cannot be considered as reflecting the official position of the respective countries. Each country has a right to harmonise and update the profile in line with their national standards and requirements and submit the officially endorsed profile for publication.

At the moment, all profiles are available for download in English and Russian in the section Migration Profiles, as well as from the Overview table of the section Migration Profile Light.

The Senior Officials´ Meeting of the Prague Process held in Cracow on 15-16 June gathered numerous representatives of the Prague Process participating countries. This represented a great opportunity to ask participants about their opinion on this intergovernmental platform and the Targeted Initiative, which helps to implement it and tackle on a practical level its priorities. What feedback have they provided? What positive do they see in the Prague Process? All their answers, ideas and thoughts were captured in a set of short video interviews, which are now available for viewing on our homepage, in the section Media and also on ICMPD YouTube channel. These messages represent a promise for the approaching 3rd Ministerial Conference, which will be held in Bratislava on 19-20 September 2016, and where the Ministers will have to decide in which direction the Process should move in the future.

As a final result of the recently finished Pilot Project 6 on Student mobility and the Pilot Project 7 on Asylum and International Protection, following the official endorsement at the Senior Officials' Meeting in Cracow on 15-16 of June 2016, the “Prague Process Handbook on Enhancing International Student Mobility” and the Handbook “Quality in Asylum Decision Making: Using Jurisprudence and Multidisciplinary Knowledge for Training Purposes” were published on the Prague Process and ICMPD websites.

Both documents were drafted in close cooperation with the respective leading states - Czech Republic & Hungary, Sweden & Germany -  and in consultation with the Prague Process participating states. Their format is of rather practical nature and should eventually serve for training purposes.

Both documents are available for download in the section Key/Programme Documents.

The Senior Officials’ Meeting gathered 62 participants from 29 states, as well as the European Commission, the Council of the EU, Frontex, UNHCR and ICMPD. The Meeting served the discussion of the past achievements, of the possible future activities and the preparations of the upcoming 3rd Ministerial Conference “Addressing Challenges Together”, taking place in Bratislava on 19-20 September 2016. At this occasion, Ministers are expected to endorse the Joint Declaration, which shall constitute a clear basis for future endeavours in the period 2017-2021. The SOM also provided the attending states with an opportunity to express their national priorities and the scope of their future commitment and support to the PP. The joint ownership of the Process is important and should be further sustained through a strong political message in the form of the Joint Ministerial Declaration, the content of which was extensively discussed in Cracow.