Romania's prime minister-designate puts OECD accession at centre of agenda, names Niculescu foreign minister
Designated premier Adrian Veștea called OECD membership the country's third external anchor after the EU and NATO and confirmed Luca Niculescu as his foreign minister after a meeting that also finalised the government programme.
OECD as the third anchor
Romania's designated prime minister Adrian Veștea has placed accession to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development at the heart of his incoming government's programme. In a Facebook post published on Saturday, he described OECD membership as "a treia ancoră externă" (the third external anchor) after the country's integration into the European Union and NATO.
The third external anchor for Romania after the EU and NATO is the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. OECD accession will bring stability, credibility and economic predictability for Romania.
Veștea argued that these benefits would translate into larger and better investments and would function as a genuine school of good governance. He stressed that the goal enjoys broad consensus across Romanian society.
Niculescu named foreign minister
The prime minister-designate used the same social-media statement to confirm that Luca Niculescu, currently secretary of state and national coordinator for the OECD accession process, would become foreign minister in the cabinet he intends to lead. Niculescu has held the coordinator role since September 2022 and previously served as Romania's ambassador to France, Monaco and Andorra between 2016 and 2022. Before his diplomatic career he was a journalist, editor-in-chief of RFI Romania and a commentator on several television channels.
Government programme readied
Veștea and Niculescu also worked on the final version of the government programme that the incoming premier plans to present to Parliament. The designated prime minister underlined that completing the accession process depends on domestic political stability and that a government with full powers is needed for balanced and sustained dialogue.
My ambition is to finalise the OECD accession process as soon as possible. To thus enter this club of the world's 38 most developed states, which represent approximately 60 percent of global nominal GDP.
A country project
Veștea characterised OECD membership as "a veritable country project" and pledged to do everything possible to reach the objective. He reiterated that the process requires both the conclusion of negotiations and the implementation of reforms, with the government programme serving as the immediate roadmap.
