The Prime Minister is in Paris where he is lobbying for membership in the OECD.
Croatia expects both Slovenia and Hungary to respect the decision for EU member states to support each other on their way to membership in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), said Prime Minister Andrej Plenković on Monday in Paris, reports tportal.hr on December 11, 2017.
“The principle is that we all should all support each other. There is a platform, a very clear political decision, and I expect that both Slovenia and Hungary will respect this decision of the EU and support Croatia on its way to the OECD membership, because this is ultimately in their interest as well, due to our mutual economic relations, trade exchange and strengthening of Croatia’s position in financial and other international organizations dealing with the economy,” said Plenković after talks with OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurria at the organization’s headquarters in Paris.
Early this year, Plenković met with Gurria in Davos and at the time expressed Croatia’s interest in joining the OECD. At the end of January, the Croatian government formally sent a letter of intent to join the OECD. However, Slovenia and Hungary have announced they will block the Croatian bid, Slovenia due to Croatia’s refusal to recognise the border arbitration decision, and Hungary due to issues related to relations between INA and Mol, Croatian and Hungarian oil companies.
The OECD currently has 35 member states which are the most economically developed countries in the world. The organisation was founded in early 1960 by 18 European countries, Canada and the United States, as an heir of an organisation formed within the framework of the 1948 Marshall Plan, whose primary goal was the post-war reconstruction of Europe. In the meantime, the organisation has expanded to current 35 member states. The decision on enlargement is made by the OECD Council, which consists of ambassadors of member states.
Plenković pointed out that Croatia wanted the OECD to help it in economic and structural reforms because it is an organisation which has essential expertise in the field of economy, finance, fight against corruption, public procurement, tax policy and everything that can help Croatia implement its national reform programme.
“We expect that the ambitions of six countries which want to join the organisation will be debated in the coming weeks at the OECD Council level. We expect that, in the process that will last for the next year and a half, we will intensify our dialogue and the accession of Croatia to various international legal documents which the OECD has, and thus gradually proceed towards membership. The position of the Secretary-General is very positive towards Croatia, and we will continue this dialogue in 2018,” Plenković said.
On Tuesday, he will participate in a climate summit in Paris, together with 50 other heads of states and governments. The One Planet Summit is being held exactly two years after the signing of the Paris Climate Agreement. The summit is organised by French President Emmanuel Macron in response to the decision of US President Donald Trump to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement.
Translated from tportal.hr.
