Romania is "on schedule" regarding the process of joining the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and now we are in the phase where the hearings have already started, the national coordinator for Romania's accession to the OECD, Luca Niculescu said on Thursday.
"We are on schedule [with accession] to give the shortest answer, because we started in 2022. We are evaluated (...) by 26 committees that cover practically everything we can imagine from economic, social life in Romania. There is one area that the OECD does not deal with: security. (...) In June 2022, the OECD sent us a roadmap with the milestones to be met. We replied with an initial memorandum, worked on by almost all the institutions in Romania, where we said how we estimate to align ourselves to OECD practices, procedures, standards, and immediately after this document that we submitted on December 15, 2022, a lot of questions began to come from those 26 committees. And I calculated that we have received over 10,000 questions so far, hundreds of questionnaires. So far, we have received 36 evaluation missions from these committees and many hearings after that and in Paris. We are now in the phase where we have almost finished the evaluation missions and the hearings have already started, sometimes final hearings in Paris in front of these committees", said Luca Niculescu, at the AAFBR conference.
According to him, after the final hearings within the respective committees, they issue a formal opinion, a formal opinion. After the 26 opinions are obtained, a political decision is needed by the ambassadors of the 38 states who decide whether a state can accede.
Luca Niculescu referred to an interview given by the ambassador of the US to Romania to the local press in which she stated that Romania is the most advanced of the seven candidate countries for the OECD.
He also stated that there is a target set by the prime minister for Romania to become a member of the organization in 2026.
Asked about possible risks, Luca Niculescu stated that the biggest risk would be "not keeping the good pace we are in now" and missing the 2026 target.
The Association of Financial and Banking Analysts from Romania (AAFBR) organized, on Thursday, its annual conference on the theme "Romania's Road to Excellence by joining the OECD Elite", an event that reached its 16th edition.
This year's AAFBR conference is dedicated to Romania's admission as a member of the OECD.
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