Ministry: Hungary will support Romania’s OECD membership

The Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade has informed the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE) that Hungary will support Romania’s membership bid for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), according to a press release from MAE. The list of candidates nominated for accession negotiations may be the subject of a decision at the OECD Council meeting today, September 25, or during future meetings, the Romanian Ministry said in the press release. “The specific steps of the Romanian diplomacy in the last period, directed towards a dialogue of substance with the member states and structures of the organization, aimed to make known Romania’s strengths and arguments capable of generating the consensus of the organization’s members regarding the support of our country's candidacy,” reads the MAE statement. The Hungarian state secretary Levente Magyar announced earlier this month that the Hungarian Government has decided to withdraw its support for Romania’s admission to various international organizations, including the OECD, claiming that the Romanian authorities had decided to suspend the classes of the Roman Catholic Theological High School in Targu Mures, in central Romania. On Saturday, September 23, the Social Democrat Party (PSD) leader Liviu Dragnea announced on his Facebook page that he has had a phone conversation with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, during which they found solutions for this problem. On one hand, Romania will solve the problem at the high school in Targu Mures and, on the other hand, Hungary will support Romania’s OECD membership, Dragnea said. Irina Marica, irina.marica@romania-insider.com