Romania is ready for 2026 to be the year of its official accession to the OECD, and for us to sit on the other side of the table at the next economic assessment, as a full member, Finance Minister Alexandru Nazare informs on his Facebook page, on Wednesday.

'Yesterday, in Paris, we concluded a very important stage for Romania's economic future: the assessment session in the Economic and Development Review Committee (EDRC), where we presented Romania's progress to 38 representatives of the world's most developed economies. In parallel, the Ministry of Finance is close to finalising the assessment within the Fiscal Affairs Committee, with 10 out of 10 technical opinions adopted (the 10 subsidiary groups of the Fiscal Affairs Committee that assessed Romania in the OECD accession process). The figures and real structural changes that we presented in Paris prove that we are not looking for shortcuts to accession, but we are delivering real results,' the minister noted on Wednesday.

In the results chapter, Alexandru Nazare mentions a fiscal performance above targets, record investments, complete digitalisation of the Tax Office and stability.

'In terms of fiscal performance we were above targets. We presented the progresses that we've made in terms of the budget deficit and the encouraging figures recorded in end-2025 and early 2026. The consistent adjustment achieved in the last 6 months shows that we are on the right path towards consolidation, but we must remain consistent in order to maintain the trust we have gained. We also had record investments. We managed to increase the level of public investments up to 7.2%, as well as the share of European funds in this envelope. We did this by accelerating investments from European funds, while reducing the budget deficit, which represents a positive and sustainable result, also appreciated at the level of international organisations,' he said.

According to the head of Finance, by renegotiating the PNRR (National Recovery and Resilience Plan), the risk of losing European funds from grants was reduced and resources were secured for Romania's major projects in key areas such as: transport, energy, health.

Regarding the complete digitalisation of the Tax Office, Nazare assures that, by the end of 2026, the ANAF (the National Agency for Fiscal Administration) Digital Hub will be fully operational.

'We monitor public money through state-of-the-art software, ensuring strict control of expenses,' he assured.

Regarding stability, the Minister of Finance stated that he had supported the importance of fiscal predictability before the Committee, emphasising that reforms aim to preserve human capital, without placing fiscal pressures that would discourage formal work.

'We sent a clear message to our OECD partners: Romania has made the necessary efforts and visibly accelerated the accession process, especially in the fiscal area, where we had many issues to recover. The concrete results in the area of fiscal consolidation facilitate the accession procedures in the club of developed economies, so that we can increase the level of private investment. We are prepared for 2026 to be the year of Romania's official accession, and for us to sit on the other side of the table at the next economic assessment, as a full member. For the first time, Romania is simultaneously delivering fiscal consolidation and record investments - a decisive argument for joining the OECD,' added Alexandru Nazare. AGERPRES (RO - writing by: Oana Tilica, EN - writing by: Cristina Zaharia)