EU Member States¹ and partner countries² have agreed on a Joint Declaration outlining six key priorities for 2025-2030, including expanding legal pathways, tackling irregular migration, enhancing international protection, prevention of racism and discrimination, and stronger support for integration.
Ministers and representatives from all over the world, along with the European Commission and international and UN organisations, met in Budapest for the seventh Ministerial Conference of the Budapest Process on 11-12 November 2024. Hungary’s Presidency of the Council of the EU, co-hosted the Conference along with Türkiye.
Delegates from Budapest Process countries and partner countries highlighted the multiple drivers of irregular migration and forced displacement, including protracted crises, wars, economic instability and climate change, as well as strategies and solutions to mitigate their impact in the hardest-hit regions, such as the Silk Routes Region³.
As a response to these and with the upcoming implementation of the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum, the ministers put forward six key priorities in the “Call for Action 2025-2030,” urging Member States and partner countries to:
- Strengthen policies and pathways for legal migration and mobility;
- Prevent irregular migration, fight migrant smuggling and human trafficking, and improve cooperation on border management, and criminal investigations and prosecutions;
- Maximise the positive impact of migration on development; and address the root causes of irregular migration and forced displacement;
- Ensure international protection and the respect for the rights of refugees and those in need of protection, in line with international law, while promoting long-term solutions;
- Support the integration of migrants, refugees, and asylum-seekers; while also addressing racism, extremism, discrimination, and xenophobia;
- Strengthen the international, regional, and bilateral cooperation for safe and effective return, readmission, and sustainable reintegration;
Migration will always be a demanding and complex issue. With this Joint Declaration, we renew our political commitments and realign our collective focus on priority areas for the next five years. This Declaration reflects compromise, consensus, and a shared vision; acknowledges the diversity of its partners; and finds a lot of common ground between us. Thus, our migration dialogues can continue to build on its achievements, address the migration challenges ahead, and also utilise the opportunities that evolve with even greater effectiveness and impact.ICMPD Director General Michael Spindelegger said
Key elements of a future common approach are on tackling irregular migration; a focus on cooperation for safe returns; and addressing labour shortages in specific sectors across the region by matching available talent in partner countries through regional and bilateral labour mobility schemes, specifically in the Silk Routes Region, while preventing brain drain and respecting national priorities.
The Conference endorsed and clearly defined the roles of the Reference Group to overlook the implementation of the Call for Action; and of the three Thematic Working Groups focused on law enforcement cooperation to combat irregular migration, return and reintegration, and legal pathways for migration, which will be hosted by the ICMPD.
Sedef Dearing, Director for Migration Dialogues Cooperation at the ICMPD, opened the Senior Officials Meeting prior to the Conference. Ms Dearing praised the endorsement the Ministerial Declaration and the Call for Action; and also expressed ICMPD’s commitment for stronger collaboration in migration dialogues such as the Budapest Process.
First convened in 1993, the Budapest Process is an inter-regional dialogue focused on migration policy and its implementation through projects with participating and observer States. To date, with 51 participating governments and 10 international organisations, it covers Europe, the Western Balkans, Central Asia, and West and South Asia.
This year’s Conference was supported by the European Commission, Australia, Finland, Hungary, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and Türkiye.
¹ EU Member States represented were Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, and Sweden.
² Non-EU partner countries included Albania, Armenia, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Georgia, India, Iran, Iraq, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Norway, Pakistan, Serbia, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Türkiye, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
³ The Silk Routes region (in the context of Budapest Process) is among ICMPD’s focus areas that covers Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Iran, Iraq, and Pakistan.
ICMPD Director General Michael Spindelegger at the press briefing on 12 November 2024