OREANDA-NEWS. The OECD took a significant step to extend its global reach by deciding to open membership talks with Latvia and signaling its intention to do likewise with Lithuania in the near future.

Welcoming the decision taken by the 34 Member countries of OECD, Secretary-General Angel Gurria said: “Today’s decision underscores the OECD’s commitment to further diversify its global membership and reinforces its role as a standard setter and “house of best practices”. Latvia will make a valuable contribution to enrich our collective experience and strengthen OECD as a source of effective and innovative public policies.

The decision on Latvia was taken at the OECD’s annual Ministerial Council Meeting in Paris. They also signaled their intention to open accession talks with Lithuania in 2015 and to work closely with these countries in the intervening period. The applications for accession by the other countries reviewed by the OECD will be further considered on a case-by-case basis.

The next stage in the accession process will be the establishment of individual roadmaps. Accession talks will take place individually between the candidate countries and the OECD involving the committees with responsibility for the substantive aspects of the Organisation’s work.

In 2007, OECD invited five nations to open talks on accession. Chile, Estonia, Israel and Slovenia became full members in 2010 and accession talks with the Russian Federation are ongoing.