EU gives ground in OECD membership battle

The EU has given up demanding simultaneous admission into the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) for the eight EU states which are not currently in the club of industrialised nations.

Turkey was threatening to block Cyprus’s admission and other OECD countries are arguing that the new EU states are not of sufficient economic significance.

Of the new EU states, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia are already OECD members. The EU was lobbying for Cyprus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Slovenia, Romania and Bulgaria to be admitted in the next wave of OECD enlargement.

The OECD Council will meet on 15-16 May in Paris to discuss the 30-member organisation’s expansion as it seeks a post-Cold War role.

Turkey has warned that it will veto Cypriot membership of the organisation, making simultaneous accession of an EU8 impossible. Cyprus’s continued disagreements with Turkey over Northern Cyprus have already blighted EU efforts to reach a common position on Kosovo and EU peacemaking efforts in the former Soviet Union.

Turkey is a founding member of the OECD, which was set up at the end of 1960 to replace the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation (OEEC), the body which allocated US?and Canadian aid in Europe after the Second World War.

Other OECD countries have argued that Malta and others do not carry enough economic weight to justify their membership.

The US and other OECD member states believe that the organisation should extent its global reach and admit the world’s emerging economies - Brazil, China, India and Russia - before the EU8.

A diplomat familiar with the discussions said: "The US does not want to turn up and have to listen to what Malta has to say, it would rather hear what China or India has to say…entrants should be significant players in the world economy."

In a significant softening of their position, EU ambassadors yesterday (3 April) agreed that membership of the EU8 could be sequenced and should take place in "the medium term". The move was described by one insider as a "face-saving exercise".

Michel van den Abeele, the European Commission’s representative to the OECD, warned in an article published last month that the EU has to define its strategy on the future of the organisation, or "risk reacting blow-by-blow to initiatives that risk reducing its influence".

EU member states rejected a proposal from the European Commission to veto further enlargement if an EU country is not involved in each wave.

But the EU continues to insist that all EU countries should be eligible for OECD membership.

At the May meeting, the EU is likely to face calls to address its disproportionate representation within the OECD. Of the OECD’s current 30 members, 19 are also members of the EU.

Estonia and Slovenia are now among the favourites to be the next EU members to join the organisation, along with Chile and Israel.

The EU has given up demanding simultaneous admission into the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) for the eight EU states which are not currently in the club of industrialised nations.