07.10.2021

Minister of Finance Valeri Beltchev and Deputy Minister of Finance Monica Dimitrova – Beecher took part in the annual ministerial Council meeting of the Organisation for Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) which was held on 5–6 October 2021 in Paris, France. The discussions focused on the medium-term and long-term global challenges to climate change, digital transformation, transformation of shared values and priorities, as well as on the plans for building a green, inclusive and sustainable future.

Minister Beltchev took part in the plenary session devoted to “Building a Green Future – Getting to Net Zero”. During the discussions in the Green Finance for Net-Zero panel, he pointed out that Bulgaria had achieved significant progress in expanding the scope of the arrangements engaging the financial sector in green policy implementation. The Finance Minister assured that with the advancement of this process, the defining of objectives and follow-up would be ever more important. “We would like to promote the use of multilateral mechanisms in order to facilitate the setting up of simple but effective taxonomy standards which would enable us to lay out, communicate and manage environmental protection policies in a better way”, said Minister Beltchev.

The Bulgarian Finance Minister took active part in the discussions during the working lunch focusing on promoting trade and socio-economic relations in this filed. Minister Beltchev also took part in the Promoting an Inclusive Digital Transformation panel held within the Building an Inclusive Future plenary session.

The OECD ministerial Council meeting is the highest-level meeting of the Organisation which gathering the ministers of finance, the ministers of economy, the ministers of foreign affairs, the ministers of trade and of other government institutions of the member and partner countries, as well as representatives of various international organisations. In September the Ministry of Finance received a letter form OECD Secretary General Mathias Cormann which invites our country to join the Financial Markets Committee and the Advisory Task Force on the OECD Codes of Liberalisation (ATFC) as a participant.

We remind that the Ministry of Finance implements a number of measures aimed at expanding its cooperation with the Organisation and meeting the requirements for full-fledged membership. As a result of the efforts made by the MoF, in 2015 Bulgaria joined the OECD Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes and the Multilateral Agreement between the Competent Authorities on the Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information, and in 2016 it joined the Inclusive Framework for Adoption of the Anti-BEPS measures and became a party to the Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters.

In line with the objectives of the Road Map on the Actions of the Republic of Bulgaria for Joining OECD and the Action Plan on Fiscal Matters 2019–2020 elaborated in close coordination with the OECD, in 2019 our country joined the Global Statistics Database and the OECD Guidelines on Corporate Governance of State-Owned Enterprises. 

In 2020 the Ministry of Finance also took part in the activities of the Insurance and Private Pension Insurance Committee and its working formats, with a request sent for including Bulgaria in the activities of this Committee as a guest. The MoF is a member of the OECD International Network of Financial Education (INFE).