Lithuania to Join OECD

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) agreed on May 3 to formally invite Lithuania to become a member of the organisation, with the signing of an Accession Agreement planned during the upcoming meeting of the OECD Council at ministerial level on May 30-31 in Paris. Lithuania’s membership will take effect after it has taken the appropriate steps at national level to accede to the OECD Convention and deposited its instrument of accession with the French government, the depository of the Convention. Lithuania’s accession will extend OECD’s membership to 36 countries.

OECD Secretary-General, Angel Gurría said: “We are very pleased to welcome Lithuania as a member of this ‘house of best practices,’ joining us in our collective endeavour to provide answers to the leading economic, social and environmental challenges of our time. Lithuania’s membership will help enrich the OECD’s work through the country’s unique experience in several policy areas, while membership in the OECD will support Lithuania’s efforts to improve the well-being of its own citizens. I look forward to my visit to Vilnius in early July to celebrate this important outcome.”

Throughout its accession process, Lithuania has been reviewed by 21 OECD Committees on two fronts: an evaluation of the country’s willingness and ability to implement substantive OECD legal instruments, as well as a detailed assessment of Lithuania’s policies as compared to OECD best practices.

As part of the process, Lithuania undertook a number of important reforms in areas such as the corporate governance of listed and state-owned enterprises, anti-corruption and investment.

Lithuania began OECD accession talks in 2015.

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Photo: Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė and OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría. Source: OECD.