The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on Thursday welcomed progress made in the accession process by Brazil, Bulgaria, Croatia, Peru and Romania.

The OECD, a club of 38 countries which call themselves democracies and market economies, was established in 1961. Its ministers held a meeting in Paris on Wednesday and Thursday and at its end published a joint statement, reaffirming the importance of multilateralism and unity in dealing with global challenges and going beyond the current membership to improve and develop global partnerships, as well as welcoming the progress in the accession process made by Brazil, Bulgaria, Croatia, Peru and Romania.

There was no comment from the office of the OECD Secretary-General, former Australian Finance Minister Mathias Cormann, as to why the sixth candidate Argentina was not mentioned.

For a country to join the OECD, it must adopt 270 legal instruments, and Croatia has adopted 43, the least of the six candidates, according to information on the OECD web site.

However, over the past year it has adopted 15 instruments, that is, laws and rules related to justice, business and other sectors.

Brazil has adopted 119 instruments, Romania 76, Bulgaria 60, Argentina 58 and Peru 51.

The OECD launched the process of accession for Croatia in January 2022, five years after receiving its membership request. OECD accession is politically important to the Croatian government, which is why the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is conducting negotiations with the organisation.

The member-states finance the OECD, they discuss global problems at their meetings and publish economic analyses and forecasts and make suggestions to countries as to what kind of economic policy to pursue.

The last country to be admitted was Costa Rica, which started negotiations in April 2015 and joined in May 2021.