Prime Minister-designate, Luca Niculescu: “The OECD accession process showed us that the political parties managed to jointly support an important objective for Romania. I hope we can find the same openness now as well”

Designated Prime Minister Luca Niculescu said on Tuesday that he wants the same cooperation between political parties in the negotiations to form and support the new Government, following the model of the consensus reached in the process of Romania’s accession to the OECD.

In a Facebook post, Niculescu, Secretary of State at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, stated that over the past four years he had coordinated the accession process to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, an experience that gave him a broad overview of Romania’s economy, administration, education, healthcare, taxation and labour market.

“Over the past four years, I coordinated Romania’s accession process to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). It was the most intense professional experience I have ever had and an extraordinary assessment of the Romanian state: its economy, administration, education, healthcare, state-owned companies, labour market and taxation.

During these years, I learned an important lesson: good reforms are based on data, on the reality on the ground and on other successful experiences. And they are carried out for people.

The OECD accession process has already meant more than 100 reforms for Romania. I want this work to continue and become one of the foundations of the governing programme. Not because the OECD recommends it, but because these are good ideas for Romania, assessed and tested in some of the world’s best-performing economies.

There is something else that the OECD accession process has shown us. Political parties managed to jointly support an important objective for Romania, beyond their natural differences. This consensus mattered enormously.

I hope we can find the same openness now, around a realistic programme built on what unites us. I am open to discussions and I respect good ideas, regardless of where they come from,” Luca Niculescu wrote on Facebook.