The Söderköping Process was launched in May 2001, funded by the European Union, as a cross-border cooperation process on asylum and migration  and in order to respond to the new challenges that arose with the EU’s eastward enlargement. It is named after Söderköping, Sweden, where the first meeting took place on the initiative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Swedish Migration Board.

The process seeks to coordinate the cross-border cooperation issues of asylum, migration, and border management for the countries by the Eastern border of the European Union (Söderköping countries): Belarus (2001), Estonia (observer, as of 2007), Hungary (2003), Latvia (2002), Lithuania (2001), Moldova (2002), Poland (2001), Romania (2003), Slovakia (2003), and Ukraine (2001). 

The process is financed by the EU and implemented by the UNHCR. The International Organization for Migration and the Swedish Migration Board are the partners of the Process.