OECD

OECD

Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) was founded in 1961, when the United States and Canada joined the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation (OEEC) and started to work together with other member countries in the pursuit of a common goal of reconstructing Europe after World War II. The OECD headquarters are located in Paris.

The OECD is an international forum in which experts form member countries work together to find solutions to common challenges, develop global standards, share experiences and identify best practices promoting better policies for better lives.

The organisation brings together member countries and partners that collaborate closely on key global issues. Through diverse standards and initiatives, their work helps drive and anchor reform in economies around the world, building on collective wisdom and shared values.

Since Lithuania’s accession, the OECD's membership has been extended to 37 countries. The country became a full-fledged member of the organisation on 5 July 2018.

The OECD covers a broad range of core public policy issues like economic, environmental, educational, scientific, technological and innovational challenges. Other international economic organisations and financial institutions assess the OECD's data and analysis based studies on various country-specific policy dialogues.

The OECD is one of the world’s largest sources of statistical data. OECD statistics are available at www.oecd.org/statistics and through a variety of sources: OECD.Stat, the Organisation’s data warehouse, gives access to complete databases for users. It provides a single online platform where users can search for and extract data from across the OECD databases.

OECD iLibrary offers the full range of statistical databases in combination with analytical publications in a single website. The OECD's analytical publications are also available at the Lithuanian Technical Library.

Lithuania’s cooperation with OECD

In 1996, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania jointly addressed the OECD Council to request the establishment of an OECD Baltic Regional Programme and stated their intention to seek the OECD membership. The Governments of Lithuania declared the country’s intention to become a full member of the organisation in their programmes from 2000.

In September 2002, an official declaration of Lithuania’s intention to become a full member of the OECD was presented to the organisation’s Secretary-General.
In 2012, Lithuania renewed its membership application.

In May 2013, the OECD Council adopted the Resolution of the Council on Strengthening the OECD's Global Reach, which mentioned a possibility to open accession negotiations with Lithuania in 2015 and to intensify  cooperation with the country.

In September 2013, the Lithuania-OECD Action Plan for 2014-2015 was adopted.

On 9 April 2015, the OECD Council unanimously decided to open accession discussions with Lithuania. The Council took the official decision at the OECD Ministerial Council Meeting on 4 June 2015. In the meeting, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania signed an Agreement on the Privileges and Immunities of the Organisation. The Agreement is an integral part of the accession documents.

On 8 July 2015, the OECD Council approved he Roadmap for the Accession of Lithuania to the OECD Convention, also known as the ‘Accession Roadmap’ that set out the terms, conditions and process for OECD accession.

On 16 December 2015, the Government of Lithuania approved the Initial Memorandum, which set out Lithuania's position on more than 200 OECD legal instruments in force and included an assessment of the conformity of Lithuania’s legislation, policies and practices with the instrument. This allowed the launch of the technical reviews in the 21 OECD committees listed in the country’s Accession Roadmap.

On 13 December 2016, the Head of the new Government, Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis sent a letter to the OECD Secretary General confirming Lithuania’s political aspirations to become a member of the organisation. In response to this letter, the Secretary-General of the OECD Angel Gurría noted that the OECD was satisfied with the close cooperation with Lithuania, which had started its accession journey.

Lithuania underwent in-depth reviews by 21 substantive OECD committees, which provided the Council with an evaluation in their formal opinions of Lithuania’s policies and practices as compared to OECD best policies and practices in their area of competence, with reference to the corresponding core principles set out in the Accession Roadmap.

The comprehensive assessments were carried out by OECD’s substantive committees encompassing a broad range of areas, such as investment, bribery in international business transactions, corporate governance, financial markets, insurance and private pensions, competition, tax, environment, chemicals, public governance, regulatory policy, statistics, economics, education, employment, labour and social affairs, health, trade, export credits, fisheries, science and technology, digital economy policy, and consumer policy. 

The OECD’s invitation to Lithuania to become a member of the organisation resulted from the OECD Council's positive assessment of Lithuania's position with respect to OECD legal instruments, standards and benchmarks. On 22 April 2016, the OECD Trade Committee was the first one to provide the Council with a positive evaluation of Lithuania. In 2017 and early 2018, other 20 committees completed their evaluation process of Lithuania. After the completion of the reviews, the Economic and Development Review Committee  approved the Lithuanian Economic Review, which was officially presented on 5 July 2018.

As a result of the accession process, Lithuania has adopted 50 changes in laws and implemented a series of reforms to align itself with the requirements of the Codes of Liberalisation concerning land acquisition, to increase the independence of Boards of State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) and to apply International Financial Reporting Standards, to rationalise sectors with multiple SOEs, to increase the level of sanctions on bribery, and adopted a Law on Whistleblower Protection. These are important achievements that have brought Lithuania closer to OECD standards and best practices. The accession process has been a catalyst for impressive reforms in Lithuania and has effectively supported the country’s policy reforms in various areas.

The Government of Lithuania submitted to the Council its Final Statement concerning the acceptance by Lithuania of the obligations of membership of the organisation, which became an integral part of the Agreement on the Terms of Accession of the Republic of Lithuania to the Convention on the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

On 3 May 2018, the OECD issued an invitation to Lithuania to become a member of the organisation.
The President of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaitė and the OECD Secretary-General signed the Agreement on the Terms of Accession of the Republic of Lithuania to the Convention on the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development on 30 May 2018.

On 28 June 2018, the Seimas (Parliament) of Lithuania ratified the Agreement on the Terms of Accession of the Republic of Lithuania to the Convention on the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

During the OECD Secretary-General’s visit to Lithuania, the country deposited its instrument of accession to the OECD Convention and became a full member of the  organisation on 5 July 2018.