Croatia might join the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in three to seven years, and the bulk of membership negotiations is expected to focus on management of state-owned companies, the rule of law and the justice system, OECD Deputy Secretary General Ulrik Knudsen has told Hina in an interview.

The negotiations have got off to a good start. I was in Croatia this summer to initiate talks at both levels, with politicians and with all staff at the ministries who will be involved in the negotiations, Knudsen said on the sidelines of the technology conference “5G Techritory” in Riga earlier this week.

We can say that the political part is behind us. Croatia has become a candidate country and now we are in the midst of tough technical negotiations, the Danish diplomat said.

OECD was founded in 1961 as a forum of countries that describe themselves as being committed to democracy and the market economy. It is financed by the members themselves. The members use this forum to discuss global problems and publish economic analyses.

Croatia opened accession negotiations on 25 January 2022, five years after sending a letter of intent to this Paris-based organisation. In July, Knudsen met in Zagreb with Prime Minister Andrej Plenković and Minister for Foreign and European Affairs Gordan Grlić Radman.

Croatia has already submitted an initial memorandum, which means that it has passed all relevant aspects of the accession process, which is the foundation of negotiations, Knudsen said.

Since OECD membership is important to the Croatian government, the negotiations are led by the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs.

Croatia has joined all relevant international organisations but the OECD, Croatian chief negotiator Grlić Radman said in April.

Negotiations might be completed in a short time

Knudsen believes that Croatia is well positioned to join the OECD, a club of 38 wealthy nations.

It is hard to say when Croatia might join. That will depend on the progress of negotiations. If we look at the last ten or so countries that joined, this process took between three and seven years, he said.

But I think that Croatia has got off to a good start and hope the talks will be completed sooner, he added.

The last country to be admitted to the OECD is Costa Rica, a Central American nation that started negotiations in April 2015 and joined in May 2021.

The Croatian Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs told Hina in April that according to preliminary estimates from the OECD “our accession negotiations would not take longer than two and a half to three years.”

In June 2021, the OECD said that Croatia should improve the management of state-owned enterprises, recommending the establishment of an ownership coordination body and underlining the need to improve transparency and disclosure practices and to strengthen the autonomy and independence of the supervisory boards in those companies.

The Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs said in April this year it had drawn up an action plan to implement the OECD recommendations, adding that the corporate governance reform was expected to be completed by 2024.

Among the most important points of negotiations will be state-owned companies, the rule of law and the justice system, Knudsen said. This applies not only to Croatia, but also to Bulgaria, Romania, Brazil, Peru and all countries aspiring to join. I don’t see this as anything specific to Croatia, but we will certainly spend some time on this matter during the negotiations, he added.

In order for a country to join the OECD it must meet 260 “legal instruments”. Croatia has so far met 39 of those standards, of which 11 this year, the least among the six candidate countries. Brazil has met 114 legal instruments, Romania 66, Bulgaria and Argentina 55 each, and Peru 49.

We cannot regard any of the countries as the lead candidate, although Brazil has so far met most of the OECD’s legal instruments. Croatia is a highly-developed country according to many parameters and I expect it to be at the front of this package of candidate countries, Knudsen said.

OECD technical committees, which include people from member states, are overseeing the adoption of legal instruments.