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The system of ad-hoc queries enables exchange of specific information on migration and international protection among the EU Member States, Norway and the European Commission in an accelerated manner. Compilations of answers that are produced provide a comparable overview of the current situation in the given area in respective states.

The EMN is active in the area of building networks and developing contacts at the national and international level. As part of this agenda, the EMN regularly organizes different expert meetings, national conferences, seminars, presentation meetings, webinars etc. It cooperates with the state institutions, international organizations, agencies and other stakeholders working in the area of migration and international protection.

As part of its activities, the EMN is also involved in expert groups. They serve mainly to exchange information and good practice in particular areas between the European Commission, the EU Member States and Norway. They include among others the Return Expert Group – REG established in 2014 and the EMN Platform on Statelessness founded in 2016.

Each of the EMN National Contact Point institutions in the SR has nominated an expert who, in coordination with IOM, participates in implementation of the EMN activities. Political guidance, key decisions and priorities of the Slovak Republic within the EMN are defined by the National EMN Steering Board which consists of senior executive managers from the institutions that constitute the Slovak EMN National Contact Point. These institutions are:

The first incentive to establish the EMN arose at the European Council Summit in Laeken in 2001. The European Council called upon the European Commission to consider the preparation of a European system of information exchange in the area of asylum, migration and countries of origin. The result of it was the EMN creation in 2003 as a pilot project running from 2004 to 2006. 

The Thessaloniki European Council in 2003 as well as the Hague Programme determining EU priorities in the area of freedom, security and justice from November 2004 underlined the need for common analysis of migration phenomena by means of collection, provision, exchange and efficient use of up-to-date information. The EMN represented one of the means towards this goal. The European Council stated that it would examine the possibility of setting up the EMN as a stable and permanent structure in the future. After the successful completion of the preparatory phase the EMN was established by the Council Decision/2008/381/EC adopted on 14 May 2008 as a permanent structure.

The Slovak Republic participated at some pilot and preparatory activities of EMN from 2003. Until December 2008 the Academy of the Policy Force was the EMN Coordinator in Slovakia. 

The function of coordinator was taken over by the International Organization for Migration – Office in the Slovak Republic based on the Memorandum on cooperation between the Ministry of Interior of the SR and International Organization for Migration. The Agreement between the government of the Slovak Republic and the International Organization for Migration on the coordination of the EMN activities from 20 July 2009 designated the institutions that became members of the EMN National Contact Point in the Slovak Republic.