08/02/2018 President
“Closer and stronger co-operation between PACE and the OECD is essential to strengthen the democratic resilience of our society,” said PACE President Michele Nicoletti, at the end of a bilateral meeting with Angel Gurría, Secretary General of the OECD. This meeting was held on the fringe of the 6th Parliamentary Days of the OECD.
Agreeing with Mr Gurria on the fundamental role played by parliaments in turning the voices of voters into legislation, Mr Nicoletti, the first PACE President to attend an OECD Global Parliamentary Network meeting, underlined that PACE, through its 47 national parliamentary delegations, offers an excellent forum for disseminating OECD work to more than 800 million Europeans.
Mr Nicoletti praised, in particular, the OECD's work on education, and efforts to ensure the teaching of respect for other cultures. “It is essential to provide young people with the tools enabling them to acquire skills to build a pluralistic society based on solidarity, democratic values and human rights, as PACE pointed out in its recent resolution,” Mr Nicoletti said.
Turning to the OECD's work at the sub-national level, President Nicoletti highlighted the successful example of the OECD LEED Trento Centre for Local Development, stressing that more countries should consider opening similar OECD local offices.
Finally, Mr Nicoletti informed Secretary General Gurría of his idea to create academic networks for each Council of Europe Convention – in particular, the Convention against Corruption. “I hope that the OECD, with its longstanding experience in this area, could be concretely associated to this project,” he concluded.
A debate on the activities of the OECD is held every year at the Assembly’s autumn part-session in the framework of an “enlarged assembly” composed of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and delegations from the national parliaments of non-European member States of the OECD.
Such debates include the participation of the Secretary General of the OECD Angel Gurria. The debate is based alternately on a report presented by the PACE Committee on Political Affairs and Democracy, and on a report by the OECD Secretary General. The PACE Political Affairs Committee has just appointed Ervin Bushati (Albania, SOC), to prepare the report for the 2019 debate.
In addition, the PACE Sub-Committee on Relations with the OECD and the EBRD holds a meeting at the OECD Headquarters each year to hold an exchange of views with the Organisation’s management.
Latest plenary debate on the OECD’s activities (10 October 2017).