News

On 11 June in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), a discussion on activities of Lithuania in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) took place on the initiative of Lithuanian diplomats. Representatives from the Ministries of Economy, Environment, Finance, Communication, Justice, Social Security and Labour, and Agriculture as well as the Special Investigation Service, the Competition Council and the Department of Statistics discussed an active cooperation with the OECD. The guidelines for the Lithuanian institutions working with the OECD were presented and the striving of Lithuania to become a member of the OECD was repeated. Since 1999, Lithuania cooperated with the OECD in the framework of the Baltic Regional Programme (BRP) designed for Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. It was the main instrument of Lithuania’s dialogue with the OECD, financially supported by Scandinavian countries, Ireland and Poland. Representatives of the ministries and institutions expressed their regret that beginning with 2004 the BRP would not be continued because of financial difficulties. At the same time the participants stressed their determination to continue working with the OECD and search for new forms of cooperation. In September 2002, Lithuania officially applied to Director General of the OECD Donald Johnston and informed him about Lithuania’s wish to become an OECD member.