ZAGREB, 26 Jan 2022 - The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development said on Tuesday it had opened accession discussions with Croatia, Brazil, Argentina, Peru, Romania, and Bulgaria.

"There is no deadline for completion of the accession processes. The outcome and timeline depend on each candidate country’s capacity to adapt and adjust to align with the Organisation’s standards and best practices," the OECD said.

The process will include an in-depth evaluation by more than 20 technical committees of the candidates' alignment with OECD standards, policies, and practices.

"Croatia is ready to start OECD membership negotiations. Besides the Schengen Area and eurozone, our priority is OECD membership whereby we will strengthen our economy and Croatia's international standing and influence," Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Twitter.

The OECD's main values are individual liberty, democracy, the rule of law, the protection of human rights, and open, trading, competitive, sustainable and transparent market economies. The OECD also promotes sustainable and inclusive economic growth and climate change.

OECD Secretary-General Mathias Cormann pointed out that "candidate countries will be able to use the accession process to promote further reforms for the benefit of their people, while also strengthening the OECD as a like-minded community committed to a rules-based international order."

The technical reviews will focus on open trade and investment, public governance, anti-corruption efforts, and the effective protection of the environment and climate.

Once all the technical committees have completed their reviews, a final decision will be taken by unanimity of all OECD member countries.

For more, check out our dedicated politics section.

ZAGREB, June 18, 2019 - Croatia's IGH civil engineering company has been selected, along with the Romanian Constructii company, to design and complete the construction of a 26-kilometre leg of a Romanian motorway, and the job is valued at 3.43 million euro, the company reported on Monday.

Romania's National Company for the Administration of Road Infrastructure has commissioned the construction of the motorway which will largely be financed with EU funds.

The total value of the motorway is 76.4 million, euro while the company's contract is worth 3.43 million euro, IGH said.

A contract is expected to be signed after the 10-day appeal period ends and it is expected that construction could begin during the summer and should be completed within 2 years, IGH said in a press release.

With this contract, IGH will have met its strategic objective to generate by 2023 more than 50% of its revenue from several developed foreign branches, the company said.

"IGH is more than welcome on the Romanian market. After two years of preparation, we have finally won a big job. I am convinced that this is just the first of many big jobs IGH will get for the development of new motorways in Romania," the company's advisor for the Romanian market Tibor Gibanica said.

The company's long term plan is to open a branch office in Romania and continue efforts to connect and cooperate with local and foreign partners that are already active on that market, IGH's press release said.

The company already has a branch in Georgia, which opened in 2016 after the company won its first contract in that country. Currently that branch employs about 100 workers working on five projects and on obtaining new contracts, the company underscored.

More news about relations between Croatia and Romania can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, March 16, 2019 - Relations between Croatia and Romania are improving, as shown by the increasingly frequent high level meetings, and last year trade jumped by about 30%, the foreign ministers of the two countries said in Bucharest on Friday.

"Croatia and Romania have no outstanding issues. They have very successful cooperation in many areas within the EU and NATO and on the bilateral front. We have the same or similar stances on many issues," Marija Pejčinović Burić of Croatia said after talks with her Romanian counterpart Teodor Melescanu.

The relations have been intensifying recently, including nine high level visits on both sides in the last two years, she added.

We welcome the fact that in 2018 bilateral trade increased by about 33%, which proves the potential for advancing economic cooperation is high, said Melescanu.

Pejčinović Burić said the two-digit trade rise reflected the big interest of the business communities in both countries.

Croatia and Romania, both EU and NATO members, have the same or similar positions on all the topics on the two organisations' agendas, and share common goals, such as entering the Schengen and euro areas, supporting the EU's cohesion policy and enlargement to Southeast Europe, the Three Seas Initiative and the EU's Danube Region Strategy.

Both countries are satisfied with the protection of the respective ethnic minorities.

Pejčinović Burić and Melescanu condemned the recent terrorist attack in New Zealand and extended condolences and solidarity with the people of that country.

Pejčinović Burić also met with Romania's President Klaus Iohannis and Senate President Calin Popescu Tariceanu.

More news on Croatia and Romania can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, February 22, 2019 - The developers of the Pago mobile payment application, thanks to which people can pay their bills online in a centralized manner, has announced its plans to expand to Croatia and Poland, the Romanian Insider portal said on Friday.

The Romanian startup also plans to relocate to Poland, in the Huge Thing high tech business accelerator, where it was accepted together with nine other startups, Wall-street.ro said.

Pago has recently introduced paid subscriptions for users who pay more than five bills per month through the app. The lowest subscription is 1.07 euro per month, for those who pay up to eight bills or invoices, while the fee for clients with higher volumes is 3.2 euro per month.

Those paying up to four invoices per month can keep using the application for free, and they account for some 75% of the current users.

Pago has 110,000 active users who have paid more than 14 million euro in bills. The app was downloaded 250,000. It records 5,500 payments for more than 90 integrated suppliers a day.

More news about the IT sector, as well as the solutions for mobile payments in Croatia can be found in the Business section.

ZAGREB, May 18, 2018 - Romania and Croatia will coordinate their activities during their presidencies of the European Union in 2019 and 2020 respectively, and the good relations between the two countries will be enhanced by strengthening defence cooperation, Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said at the start of an official visit to Bucharest on Thursday.

ZAGREB, April 24, 2018 – Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandroković on Monday signed a declaration of cooperation among the parliaments of Croatia, Romania and Finland in support of the preparation and fulfilment of the parliamentary dimension of the EU presidency, the Croatian parliament said in a press release.

ZAGREB, March 9, 2018 - Romania wants to join the Schengen passport-free travel zone as soon as possible and fully supports Croatia in the same efforts, Foreign Minister Teodor Melescanu said at a meeting with his Croatian counterpart Marija Pejčinović Burić in Zagreb on Friday. It is in the interests of both Romania and Bulgaria to join the Schengen area as soon as possible, Melescanu said at a joint press conference. We, of course, give full support to Croatia to join Schengen, he added.

The Croatian President on the future of Europe.

Croats have been living in Romania since the 14th century.