OECD chief expresses support for Lithuanian membership

“As far as I understood from the OECD leader, he is in support, in his words, Lithuania has done substantial progress and sees very good perspectives. This is something he said in public – we should start the accession process next May, at the latest,” Linkevičius told BNS.

In his words, if the things develop as planned, Lithuania could expect membership in the organization, which is informally nicknamed “the rich club”, in 2016-2017 already.

“Now I feel that his personal support as a leader, and our efforts were indeed noticed, the good news is that we will probably be able to start the accession process. If I were to cite him, we can expect full membership in the elite economic club in about 2016-2017,” said the foreign minister.

The OECD leader has said that the official negotiations on Lithuania’s membership in the organization should start in May or June of 2015, with full membership expected in 2017 or 2018.

OECD currently has 34 members. Founded in 1961, the organization was established as replacement for the Organization for European Economic Cooperation that used to administer the Marshall plan, a plan proposed by the US after World War II for economic revival of Europe.