site.btaOECD Deputy Secretary-General to Visit Bulgaria Early April

A delegation led by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Deputy Secretary-General Ulrik Knudsen will visit Bulgaria between April 2 and 4, outgoing Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Mariya Gabriel reported on her Facebook page on Monday. Gabriel added that Bulgaria is progressing confidently, which the OECD sees and appreciates.

The Deputy Minister said that Bulgaria's accession to the OECD is one of the country's main foreign policy priorities.

Gabriel reported that a meeting of the Interdepartmental Coordination Mechanism for Bulgaria's accession to the OECD took place on Monday. The participants discussed the state of play of Bulgaria's accession process to the OECD, presented on the findings and recommendations derived from the reports of the technical reviews, as well as on the measures already taken and planned to align policies with the OECD standards.

Gabriel said: "Since the last meeting of the Interdepartmental Coordination Mechanism, we have achieved the following: a decision of the Council of Ministers was adopted on an addition to the National Roadmap with OECD cooperation activities for the three-year period from 2023 to 2025; a decision of the Council of Ministers decided on the members of the team working on the OECD issues at our Embassy in Paris, thus fulfilling the commitment to increase the capacity of the Embassy."

She said that Bulgaria actively contributes to the regional programmes of the OECD for Southeast Europe and Eurasia. In February 2024, an agreement was signed to have Bulgaria contribute EUR 100,000 to the OECD Regional Programme for South East Europe.