Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said on Wednesday that an intense period awaits us until the end of the year in the OECD accession process and that Romania had a good evolution that it must maintain.
The Prime Minister says that Romania had positive results in the OECD accession process
The Prime Minister of Romania, Marcel Ciolacu, presided on Wednesday, September 25, this year’s third meeting of the National Committee for Romania’s Accession to the OECD (National Committee). The representatives of all relevant institutions involved in the accession process participated.
The objective of the discussions was to coordinate the institutional efforts necessary to advance Romania’s accession process to the OECD, with an emphasis on anticipated developments in the second semester of 2024 and the beginning of 2025. The state of the accession process was reviewed from the perspective of recent progress and priorities short term.
Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu pointed out the main developments in the process, recalling that following the evaluations held within the OECD Committees, Romania has so far managed to obtain 5 formal approvals out of the 26 foreseen, within the Committee for Competition, the Committee for Regional Development Policy , the Committee for the Steel Industry, the Committee for Shipbuilding and the Committee of Senior Officials for the Budget.
The Prime Minister of Romania asked the institutions with attributions to keep in mind the more than 20 evaluations scheduled until the end of 2024 in areas such as consumer protection, social affairs, trade, agriculture, investments, digital policies, responsible business conduct, education, policies regulation, fishing, private pensions, health. The Committee members also reviewed the priority recommendations received by Romania in the first round of evaluations supported in some OECD Committees, in areas such as: environment, waste, public governance, corporate governance, responsible business conduct, private pensions, taxation .
In order to fulfill them, strengthening inter-institutional coordination, focusing efforts on recommendations with legislative or normative potential, and clarifying expectations of alignment with the Organization’s standards, through sustained interaction with the OECD Secretariat, are considered.
“We have an intense period until the end of the year within the OECD accession process, which we need to prepare as well as possible, including in an electoral context. Until now, Romania has had a positive evolution. We must maintain this pace in the coming period, when the tasks become more and more complex for us. The level of representation, the substantive interactions with the members of the Organization in the framework of future assessments, the attention in the fulfillment of the priority recommendations are essential to consolidate the progress made so far and ensure the inclusion in the politically assumed accession calendar”said Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu.
Romania became a candidate country for the OECD in January 2022, receiving the Roadmap in June 2022. This document establishes the terms, conditions and process for joining the Organization. In December 2022, Romania submitted the initial Memorandum, which makes a self-assessment of domestic legislation, policies and practices, by referring to OECD legislative instruments.
Romania is in the stage of technical evaluation by the 26 Committees included in the Roadmap, efforts being focused on the implementation of the priority recommendations received from them and on supporting the sectoral evaluations. Work is done in parallel on all general policy areas and with all sectoral committees/working groups included in the Roadmap.
The National Committee for Romania’s Accession to the OECD is made up of the ministries, institutions and public authorities with attributions within the accession process, it being led by the Prime Minister of Romania. The National Committee establishes the lines of action in order to meet the conditions set out in the Roadmap for Romania’s accession to the OECD, approves decisions to align Romania’s legislation, policies and practices with those of the Organization and formulates proposals for solving blockages that could delay the accession process.
