Rinkevics said the chances were good that Latvia would successfully complete technical negotiations and then it will only have to wait for a political decision from other members about its admission to the OECD.
The law on the management of the state-owned companies was one of the most complicated matters in the pre-accession talks, Rinkevics said, repeating a fact that has been stated many times in the past.
Under this law, state-owned companies should have supervisory boards after 2016. According to OECD best practise, members to be appointed to the supervisory board need to meet specific criteria, designed to make sure state-run companies are not infested with cronyism and Byzantine regulations that facilitate inefficiency at best and corruption at worst.
"If we accomplish that, we will stand a good chance to complete the process and it will only remain to take a political decision about admitting us as a full member of the organization,” the Latvian foreign minister said.
The OECD still has to complete several reviews but on the whole Latvia has no problems in any of the 21 areas that are being reviewed, he said, adding that it was planned to complete the technical negotiations by the end of 2015.
On February 14, 2014, Latvia delivered to the OECD an Initial Memorandum which sets out Latvia’s position on some 250 OECD legal instruments. That allowed the launch of technical reviews in 21 OECD committees to assess alignment with OECD standards and best practise.
The OECD opened accession discussions with Latvia on May 29, 2013, and an Accession Roadmap, setting out the terms, conditions and process for accession, was adopted by the OECD Council on October 15, 2013.
Provided the reluctance to open up state-owned companies to proper public scrutiny can be overcome, Latvia stands a good chance of joining the OECD in 2016.
