The recommendations of the economic study of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development are correlated with the objectives of the government programme, prime minister Marcel Ciolacu stated on Tuesday at the meeting of the National Committee for Romania’s Accession to the OECD, which highlighted the importance of implementing the recommendations received from the organization’s committees for alignment with standards in terms of legislation, policies and practices.

According to a Government release, the members of the committee, which brings together representatives of the main ministries, institutions and public authorities involved in joining the OECD, analyzed the developments of this process and priorities for the next period.

In his speech, the prime minister reviewed the progress made since the last meeting in November 2023, pointing out the launch on March 12, 2024 of the Economic Study of Romania 2024, in the presence of OECD Secretary General, Mathias Cormann, obtaining the first formal opinion of the 26 provided in the Roadmap for joining the organization and evaluating our country in about 20 working formats.

The head of the Executive underlined the importance of implementing the recommendations received from the organization’s committees to align with OECD standards in terms of legislation, policies and practices.

He pointed out the importance of preparing to participate in the more than 15 accession evaluations foreseen by the end of the year in the areas of competition, insurance and private pensions, chemicals, social affairs, trade, education, digital policy, science and research, health, fisheries.

„I am glad to see that the recommendations of the OECD Economic Study are correlated with the objectives of our governance program, focused on the economic and social modernization of the country. Efforts should be focused on fulfilling the recommendations received in all areas of OECD membership and actively participating in evaluations. The implementation of National Resilience and Recovery Plan significantly supports OECD accession, by correlating PNRR objectives and alignment with the organization’s instruments,” Ciolacu said.

The prime minister appreciated the efforts of the institutions involved in the accession process, pointing out that Romania is on a positive trajectory, a fact confirmed in the permanent dialogue with the OECD Secretariat and the member states of the organization.

„The prime minister also encouraged the administrative apparatus to maintain a dynamic pace in view of future evaluations and to pay priority attention to fulfilling recommendations. He reiterated that the process of accession to the OECD is a far-reaching exercise, meant to support the Romanian authorities in their efforts to modernize, by improving public policies, with an impact on the entire society,” the gov’t added.

Romania became a candidate country for the OECD in January 2022, receiving the Road map in June 2022. In December 2022, Romania submitted the initial Memorandum, which makes a self-evaluation of the legislation, policies and internal practices, by referring to the OECD legislative instruments.

Currently, Romania is in the technical stage of the accession process, which consists in the transmission of additional information, the organization of thematic missions and the support of presentations for evaluation in 26 committees and sectoral groups of the OECD. Information is sent in parallel for all general policy areas and by all sectoral committees/working groups in the Road map.

The National Committee for Romania’s Accession to the OECD establishes the lines of action in order to fulfill the conditions provided for in the Road map 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 the blockages that could delay the accession process.

AGERPRES