Enhancing cooperation among the Prague Process states

News

The Kick-off Meeting of Pilot Project 6 (PP6) on international students’ mobility aimed at exploring and discussing the current policies on cross-border student mobility across its participating states in order to contribute to the elaboration of good practices and policy recommendations. International graduates represent an important labour market resource. While aiming to attract foreign students, national authorities set targeted measures to prevent abuse. Numerous exchange programmes and bilateral agreements on facilitating student mobility are in place and an increasing number of states have also developed national strategies in this area.

On 8-9 of December 2014 in the unofficial capital of the Netherlands, the Hague, was held an expert meeting on Credibility Assessment in Asylum Procedures, organised in the framework of the Eastern Partnership Panel on Migration and Asylum. The Meeting gathered more than 40 representatives from the Eastern Partnership countries, the European Union, and International organisations. 

The 3rd issue of the Prague Process Quarterly Review was prepared for the Prague Process Senior Officials’ Meeting that took place in Berlin on 28-29 October 2014. On the occasion of the 5th Anniversary of the Prague Process, Poland and the Secretariat at ICMPD decided to dedicate the issue to reflecting on the past and looking into the future of the initiative. The Prague Process leading states answered the questions on the initial expectations concerning the Prague Process, the benefits of this migration dialogue and the possible directions of its future development.

The results of the Prague Process Senior Officials´ Meeting held in Berlin on 28-29 October 2014 are available for publication now.  Please, see below the summary of the main outcomes along with the information documents.

The Prague Process Senior Officials' Meeting (SOM) took place in Berlin on 28-29 October 2014 and gathered 84 participants from 41 states, the European Commission (DG Home), the Council of the European Union, Frontex, ICMPD, IOM and UNHCR.

At the occasion of the 5th Anniversary of the Prague Process, the SOM aimed at taking stock of the developments since the existence of the Process and initiated the discussion about its future, which will be accompanied by the evaluation of the Prague Process Action Plan 2012 - 2016 and mapping of activities that do support its implementation. The discussion and formulation of the future direction will continue through 4 preparatory SOMs in 2015 and 2016 and will finish with the 3rd Ministerial Conference, which will take place in Bratislava on 3-4 October 2016. The results of the evaluation process will be introduced at the Ministerial Conference, where a document setting the priorities and actions for 2017-2021 should be endorsed.

Opportunities, policies and practice in the field of labour migration will be discussed by the EU and its Eastern Partners during the Panel meeting that will take place on 6-7 November in Warsaw, Poland. 

Topics of the agenda include the following points:

  • Legal aspects of labour migration, migration schemes and different approaches adopted by the EaP countries and the EU MS;
  • The role of public employment agencies and the private sector in facilitating labour migration;
  • Humanitarian aspects of labour migration, access of migration to their rights and social security.

The meeting is jointly organised by Poland and Ukraine with the support of the European Commission.

Exactly two years after the Kick-off Workshop in Budapest in 2012, Pilot Project 2 on Legal Migration (PP2) and Pilot Project 3 on Migration and Development (PP3) were closed in a Joint Concluding Workshop, which took place in Prague on 25-26 September 2014. The 1,5-day Workshop gathered representatives of 12 participating states, as well as the Prague Process Secretariat at ICMPD.

The meeting was dedicated to the discussion of the structure and content of the Prague Process Handbook on Managing Labour and Circular Migration, developed in the course of the two Pilots. The participating states were invited to give their feedback on the preliminary version of the document in order for the final version to be officially endorsed at the Senior Officials’ Meeting of the Prague Process, taking place on 28-29 October 2014 in Berlin.

Page 32 of 36