Chairmanship
The Chairmanship of the Budapest Process ensures, in line with decisions from Ministers or Senior Officials, that the dialogue moves forward, that it stays politically anchored and that relevant issues are discussed at the appropriate levels. The Chair speaks on behalf of the Process and ensures coordination with other relevant fora. It helps translating regional changes into the thematic focus and activities of the dialogue.
Reflecting the evolving dynamics of the dialogue and the changing migration picture in the region, Turkey took over the Chairmanship of the Budapest Process from Hungary in January 2006. Hungary remains the co-chair of the Budapest Process and works in cooperation with the Turkish Chair.
Since 2006, Turkey has steered the dialogue, led the development of including the Silk Routes countries in 2010 and broadened the thematic scope of the Process to achieve the balance it has today.
Senior Officials
Senior Officials are the main decision-making body which steer the Budapest Process through annual Senior Officials meetings. This applies to governance and strategy related matters in most cases. Senior Officials, previously known as the ‘Budapest Group’, have been steering the dialogue since February 1993 in lieu of a Steering Committee.
Secretariat
The International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) serves as the Secretariat of the Budapest Process and in this role, it provides strategic, content-wise and administrative support to the Turkish Chair and the Hungarian Co-Chair in their leadership of the process. Furthermore it serves as a coordinating body for all participating countries and offers administrative and substance support when needed.
ICMPD was tasked to be the Secretariat of the Budapest Process in 1994.
The roles of the Budapest Process Governance are also laid out in the 2013 Istanbul Ministerial Declaration and previous declarations.
Reference Group
The Budapest Process set-up a Reference Group in 2021 with selected countries in order to strengthen the link between meetings and development of operational opportunities for deepened engagement for the dialogue. Sweden and Pakistan are currently the Rapporteurs of the Reference Group (RG).
