OREANDA-NEWS. February 24, 2010. A privileges and immunities agreement between the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and Estonia was signed in Paris.

OECD Secretary General Angel Gurria, who signed the agreement with Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet, said that the decision of Estonia's membership in OECD would be made this spring, spokespeople for the Estonian Foreign Ministry said.

The agreement on privileges and immunities signed in Paris is based on the OECD tradition that ensures the independence of OECD analyses. Estonia will have to ratify the agreement in parliament.

Paet said that OECD had already drawn up several analyses about Estonia and they had been of a very high level and useful. "For example, the first Estonian economic overview published in 2009 raised a lot of attention and triggered discussions about Estonia's economic policy," Paet said.

OECD is a forum of developed industrial countries with a permanent seat in Paris. The organization was established in 1961 and its forerunner was the Organization for European Economic Cooperation that was called into existence for the administration of US and Canadian aid to Europe after World War II, or the so-called Marshall plan.

OECD currently has 30 member countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, the Netherlands, Iceland, Ireland Italy, Japan, Korea, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States of America.

The OECD Convention is complemented by Supplementary Protocol No. 1, which concerns participation by the European Community in the work of the organization, while Supplementary Protocol No. 2 sets out the privileges and immunities enjoyed by the organization.

These protocols cover the founding countries of the OECD.

Since 1960 separate privileges and immunities agreements have been concluded with all new member countries and with a number of non-members.

At its May 2007 Council Meeting at ministerial level, the OECD decided to open accession negotiations with Chile, Estonia, Israel, Russia and Slovenia.

Chile and the OECD signed an accession agreement on Jan. 11, 2010.