The OECD decided to start membership negotiations with five new candidate members

Press release 89/2007
16 May 2007

The most important outcome of the Ministerial Council Meeting of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) held on 15–16 May was the decision to start membership discussions with Chile, Estonia, Israel, Russia and Slovenia. In addition, the decision was taken to develop new forms of cooperation with the central emerging economies: Brazil, China, India, Indonesia and South Africa.

“It is highly positive that the decision to begin membership talks was reached,” Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Paavo Väyrynen stated. The OECD must also intensify its cooperation with emerging economies so that the organisation can maintain its central position and effectiveness.

In Väyrynen’s opinion, Russia’s rapprochement to practices followed in the OECD countries in different sectors of economy is highly important globally as well. Väyrynen hopes that Russia’s membership negotiations will give the country a springboard and support for carrying out economic reforms in accordance with OECD standards. In the speech delivered for Finland, Väyrynen expressed the view that negotiations with Russia will take time. Väyrynen pointed out that the goal is to gain Russia’s commitment to the OECD’s principles.

Väyrynen also mentioned his satisfaction concerning future on membership of Estonia. During the past ten years, Estonia has, from an international perspective, carried out exceptional, even unique economic and social political reforms, and the OECD may also benefit from these experiences.

Väyrynen considered it unfortunate that the candidate countries’ geographic background weighed so heavily in decision-making. Many EU Member States that do not belong to the OECD, such as Latvia and Lithuania, would also have had the required readiness to start membership negotiations at the same time as the five countries now agreed.

Additional information: Under-Secretary of State Pekka Huhtaniemi, tel. +358 9 1605 5040