Print
See related documents
Resolution 1833 (2011)
The activities of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 2010-2011
1. For the purpose of debating the
activities of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
(OECD), the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe meets
annually in an enlarged forum including delegations from the non-European
member states of the OECD and the European Parliament. The enlarged
Parliamentary Assembly has reviewed the activities of the OECD in
2010-2011 in the light of the OECD’s latest annual report, the report
submitted by the Assembly’s Committee on Economic Affairs and Development,
and the contributions of other Assembly committees in the fields
of health and social policy, the environment, agriculture, migration,
education and science.
The OECD at 50
2. The enlarged Assembly welcomes the 50th anniversary
of the creation of the OECD. For the past fifty years, the OECD
has provided a unique setting where governments can come together
to share policy experiences, identify good practices, find solutions
to common problems and collaborate on addressing global challenges.
This anniversary comes at a very significant moment for the OECD
– and in a strangely turbulent period for the world economy – as
the organisation expands both its core membership and its broader
audience and develops new strategies for building stable long-term
growth in an increasingly complex and interconnected world. In this
context, the enlarged Assembly also welcomes the OECD's valuable
contribution to the evolving global architecture, including the
G20. The OECD’s active participation in the work of the G20 – some
of whose members are not OECD members – underlines the transformation
in its role and its increasingly global dimensions. The enlarged
Assembly encourages the OECD to further enhance international co-operation
to address common concerns with the Bretton Woods institutions (International Monetary
Fund, World Bank), as well as with the World Trade Organization
(WTO) and the International Labour Organization (ILO). The enlarged
Assembly welcomes the OECD 50th Anniversary Vision Statement which sets
out its renewed identity, orientation and activities.
3. The enlarged Assembly welcomes the continued OECD enlargement
process, reflected in last year’s accession of four new members:
Chile, Slovenia, Israel and Estonia. In the same vein, it welcomes
the progress made towards full membership of the Russian Federation,
as well as the enhanced engagement with Brazil, China, India, Indonesia
and South Africa, and the endeavours of the organisation to engage
in varied and flexible relationships with countries and institutions
so as to build a global policy network. The enlarged Assembly reiterates
its belief that full respect for democracy, human rights and the
rule of law, including international law, should constitute an essential
criterion for judging whether a candidate country should be invited
to join the OECD.
4. The enlarged Assembly is satisfied with the OECD’s view of
its relationship with parliamentarians as a vital element in its
mission to help policy makers implement reform. It takes note that
the OECD is expanding the breadth and depth of its parliamentary
contacts to include not only its long-standing links with the Parliamentary
Assembly of the Council of Europe and the NATO Parliamentary Assembly,
but also a strategic partnership with the European Parliament and
the OECD’s high-level parliamentary seminars held twice yearly. It
also encourages the efforts made to explore the development of an
OECD parliamentary network that could improve parliamentary involvement
in the OECD’s work.
Global economy
5. The enlarged Assembly welcomes the OECD’s assessment
that global gross domestic product (GDP) rose by 4.6% in 2010, with
growth expected to continue at 4.2% in 2011 and 4.6% in 2012. Global
trade volumes have now exceeded their pre-recession peak, and are
expected to grow by over 8% both this year and next. It should be
noted, however, that this dynamism is very much driven by the larger
non-OECD economies, and particularly China, India and Brazil. Economic
recovery appears to have come almost to a halt in the major industrialised
economies, with falling household and business confidence affecting
both world trade and employment. Thus, the global shifts in growth,
wealth and influence continue, as a major impact of the crisis has
been to hasten the decline in weight of the major developed countries
within the world economy.
6. The enlarged Assembly is concerned that in most OECD economies
the recovery is surrounded by a great many uncertainties and risks.
These risks include concerns about public debt sustainability in
some OECD countries, as well as continued financial fragility in
the euro area where sovereign debt problems are still looming high.
Similarly, these threats to the economic outlook stem from a rise
in commodity prices, possible overheating in emerging economies
coupled with increasing property prices, consumer credit and bank
profits hitting all-time highs. The enlarged Assembly is conscious
that the global economy is by no means returning to business as
usual. In the aftermath of an unprecedented crisis, there is now
a considerable challenge to be taken up, in order to establish stable,
healthy and fair global growth.
7. The enlarged Assembly notes with concern that the financial
and economic crisis has left many Council of Europe member states,
as well as other OECD member states, with a legacy of modest growth,
weak public finances and persistently high unemployment. New economic
strategies are imperative to address the problems stemming from
this predicament. High unemployment cannot be accepted as the “new
normality”. Indeed, the enlarged Assembly regards combating unemployment
as one of the central challenges confronting the OECD economies
today.
8. The enlarged Assembly takes note that, if the economic crisis
– and the food crisis – affects everyone, its impact on the poor
is particularly strong. If the volatility of commodity prices, especially
in energy and metals, has been a consistent feature of recent global
economic growth, severe instability in pricing of food commodities
– particularly basic foodstuffs – has become an increasingly important
issue for the most vulnerable economies in the last couple of years.
The enlarged Assembly shares the OECD’s view that the best way to
prevent this would be to improve planning, boost the flow of information
about stocks available, remove restrictions, and put in place timely
and effective assistance programmes, in order to maintain reasonable stability,
and prevent abuse of the commodity trading system by speculators,
to the detriment of the world’s most vulnerable consumers.
9. The enlarged Assembly is convinced that today’s key challenge
is to strike the right balance between policies aiming at achieving
fiscal consolidation and those which promote a job-rich recovery
with decent work and decent standards of living. The enlarged Assembly
therefore calls on the OECD to continue its work and to develop
appropriate policy advice in order to tackle youth unemployment
and to prevent high long-term unemployment rates from becoming entrenched.
The greatest threat to our economies is a persistent period of modest
growth, or prolonged stagnation, with negative long-term structural
consequences. The enlarged Assembly therefore calls on the OECD
to become more creative and proactive in its proposals for future
policy options in this crucial field.
10. The enlarged Assembly believes that among the necessary “paradigm
shifts” in economic policies, a key issue is to tackle inequality.
Disparities in society existed before the financial crisis, but
they have worsened as a result of the recession. These include discrimination,
income inequalities and gender imbalances. Wages as a share of global
output have fallen to their lowest level in decades, while unemployment
has remained persistently high, threatening to prevent a resurgence
of consumer demand. Growing inequalities in society are a major
obstacle for economic development. Moreover, in a longer perspective
there should be no contradiction between measures to ensure economic
growth and stability, and measures to protect and care for the most vulnerable.
Austerity measures which exacerbate inequalities will only postpone
problems and in some fields make it even more costly to resolve
them at a later stage. The enlarged Assembly encourages the OECD
to develop policy responses which address these societal problems
directly and thus help to restore public trust in the governments
after the crisis.
11. The enlarged Assembly therefore deems it crucial to put into
practice the OECD’s various policy tools designed to counter the
effects of the crisis in a range of areas, notably the measures
to improve tax transparency, the need to align financial sector
regulations and incentives, so as to achieve more effective oversight
and risk management and better corporate governance. It encourages
the OECD to explore the options for introducing a global tax on
financial transactions.The
enlarged Assembly considers that international co-operation is particularly
important to build at global level a stronger and more consistent supervisory
and regulatory framework for the financial sector so that it serves
the real economy, promotes sustainable enterprises and decent work
and better protects savings and pensions. The avoidance of future crises
requires strengthened legislation for the operations of financial
institutions and the regulation of financial markets and capital
flows in order to increase their transparency and effectiveness.
This should include rating agencies, where serious conflicts of
interest have become apparent.
12. The enlarged Assembly notes with concern that, according to
new OECD estimates, global imbalances are likely to increase in
the near future. It therefore calls on governments to address the
problem of economic imbalances and structural limitations highlighted
by the crisis, through co-ordinated reform of national policies. Such
imbalances, both in trade and finance, risk provoking a protectionist
response, and this would be disastrous for economic recovery. This
policy challenge – which implies not abolishing global imbalances,
but keeping them at a level that is both sustainable and amenable
to an efficient allocation of resources across the globe – requires
a co-operative response. The enlarged Assembly believes that the
OECD could become instrumental in devising policy advice on how
to successfully manage, and restrain, global economic imbalances.
13. The enlarged Assembly welcomes the conclusions of the OECD
Council meeting of 25 and 26 May 2011, including the new update
of the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises which extended
the reach of this leading international corporate responsibility
instrument in the areas of human rights and supply chains, and considerably
reinforced its unique implementation procedures. The OECD’s conclusions
are relevant for all open market economies and place strong emphasis
on implementing structural reforms, fiscal consolidation and the
need to strengthen their commitment to the fundamental principles
of propriety, integrity and transparency. These policies and strategies
are essential to ensure that the recovery takes hold and is transformed
into environmentally sustainable and socially balanced growth.
14. The enlarged Assembly welcomes the OECD’s innovation policies
and the Green Growth Strategy launched at the OECD Council meeting
in May 2011. It is convinced that green growth tools and indicators
can help expand economic growth and job creation through sustainable
use of natural resources, efficiencies in the use of energy and
the appropriate evaluation of ecosystem services. A turn towards
green growth is indeed essential to prevent further destruction
of natural capital, including increased scarcity of water and other resources,
more pollution, climate change and biodiversity loss, all of which
are bound to undermine stable future growth. The enlarged Assembly
encourages the OECD to further develop its policy advice for countries to
“go social” and also to provide them with the tools to increase
economic opportunities for women in education, employment and entrepreneurship.
The enlarged Assembly shares the view that innovation, supported
by a strong intellectual property rights system, is a key to countries’
abilities to achieve economic growth, create green jobs and protect
the environment.
15. The Enlarged Assembly in particular praises the OECD’s efforts
to promote green growth through its Green Growth Strategy designed
to build on the rapidly growing private sector interest in low-carbon development
and renewable energy. The OECD believes that by assessing economic
and environmental policies together, a practical and effective platform
can be created for achieving a low-carbon economy that is compatible
with growth. At the same time, the enlarged Assembly recalls that
these kinds of initiatives should contribute to states’ fulfilment
of, and further commitment to, international environmental obligations.
16. The enlarged Assembly also welcomes the development by the
OECD of a new interactive tool called the Better Life Index, designed
to model well-being in OECD countries, which provides a comparative
guide to how well countries perform against 11 criteria – such as
education, housing, income, safety and health – identified by the
OECD as essential to quality of life. The Better Life Index indeed
demonstrates the necessary interplay between these different enabling
factors that combine to create more sustainable societies. The enlarged
Assembly hopes that the OECD will continue to work on better measuring
the well-being of society and that the new tool will help to strike
a better balance between social justice and economic competiveness when
formulating economic policies, as well as incorporating environmental
concerns through the “Tools for Delivering on Green Growth” developed
by the OECD.
International development
17. The enlarged Assembly is concerned that in 2011,
and for the first time in history, the global population will reach
7 billion. Unbridled demographic growth in many developing countries
is likely to outstrip the gains of economic development. The enlarged
Assembly therefore calls on donor countries to invest far more seriously
in family planning policies, otherwise much of the progress achieved
over the last decades in fighting poverty, climate change and preventing
conflicts in sub-Saharan Africa and developing countries may be
lost.
18. The enlarged Assembly welcomes the new comprehensive approach
to development across the OECDwhich
will be reflected in a new OECD strategy for development currently
under preparation. It should
be noted that in 2010, development was formally added to the G20
agenda and at the Seoul Summit the Development Consensus for Shared
Growth was adopted. The enlarged Assembly welcomes the significant
input the OECD provided to the making of the Seoul Consensus in
six out of the nine action areas, including the encouragement of
more robust and effective tax systems, steps to reduce corruption,
better labour and regulatory practices and steps to mitigate volatility
in the price of basic foodstuffs.
19. The enlarged Assembly fully subscribes to the conclusions
of the OECD Council that the OECD should focus its development strategy
on the following areas: innovative and sustainable sources of growth; mobilisation
of domestic resources for development, including by fostering a
favourable investment climate; good governance; and measuring progress
for development. Corruption, lack of transparency, and poorly functioning
tax systems are major barriers to long-term growth in many developing
countries. Hence the importance of the OECD’s Tax and Development
Programme which will help countries to develop more effective tax
systems and combat offshore tax evasion. The enlarged Assembly also
hopes that this new OECD approach can help shape the international
development co-operation architecture that should emerge from the Busan
High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness, in South Korea in November
2011. Additionally, taking into account the enlargement process
of the OECD, as well as its increasingly global focus, the enlarged
Assembly underlines the relevance of the OECD’s international development
approach, which promotes the experiences of South-South co-operation
and triangular co-operation as tools that make a decisive contribution
to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.
20. In this context, the enlarged Assembly also underlines the
need for a successful completion of the Doha Round of trade negotiations,
not least in a spirit of solidarity with the least developed countries.
It reaffirms the importance of the multilateral trading system and
that this strong, fair and rules-based system is an essential source
of sustainable economic growth, development and job creation. It
shares the deep concern expressed by the OECD regarding the difficulties
confronting the Doha Development Agenda negotiations, and calls
on all parties to reinforce their commitment to resist economic
nationalism and protectionism, and reaffirms the commitment made
by all WTO members in 2001 in the sense that the Doha Development
Agenda aspires to achieve a more equitable share of opportunities
and welfare gains generated by the multilateral trading system among
all peoples and countries.
21. The enlarged Assembly also notes the importance of investment
as a major driver of trade flows and job creation. In this context,
it welcomes the recent update of the OECD Guidelines for Multinational
Enterprises, which include a new chapter on addressing human rights,
and encourages the organisation to send the guidelines not only
to the OECD countries but also to stakeholders in non-OECD economies.
Social and health policy
22. The enlarged Assembly requests greater commitment
by the OECD in the field of social policy, and particularly calls
on the OECD to:
22.1. study the positive
and negative effects of the taxation of wealth as a means of driving
social justice, in order to reduce inequalities and ensure efficiency
and economic stability, and make introducing equitable taxation
of all profits in order to achieve a fairer distribution of wealth
the subject of more particular attention;
22.2. advise member states to adopt ambitious policies to combat
poverty, particularly through the building of social housing and
through access to essential goods (water, energy, etc.);
22.3. provide support to member states, in co-operation with
the International Labour Organization, in the effort to develop
a coherent policy on negotiations on labour issues, taking account
of the fact that improved action against unemployment and fairer
pay depend at present on negotiating procedures involving employers
and trade unions, sometimes at international level;
22.4. promote health policies which respect everyone's right
to benefit from appropriate health care of high quality at reasonable
prices for all categories of the population;
22.5. encourage all member states to maintain social rights,
particularly in times of crisis;
22.6. call on all states to ensure young people’s access to
education, training and employment.
Environment and agriculture
23. The enlarged Assembly welcomes the co-operation between
its Committee on the Environment, Agriculture and Local and Regional
Affairs and the OECD in the preparation of the 6th World Water Forum
in Marseille in 2012, and looks forward to the OECD’s participation
in the transversal conference on climate change and human rights,
which will be organised at the Council of Europe in the autumn of
2012.
24. The enlarged Assembly welcomes the long-lasting co-operation
between the Council of Europe and the OECD, including in researching
and addressing the challenges posed by the financial crisis to local
and regional governments. It notes with satisfaction that the OECD
Secretary General, Mr Angel Gurría, is invited to take an active
part in the 17th Session of the Council of Europe Conference of
European Ministers responsible for local and regional governments,
which will take place in Kyiv, Ukraine, from 3 to 5 November 2011.
Migration and population
25. The enlarged Assembly expresses its concern over
the impact of the lingering economic and job crisis on international
migration. It welcomes the OECD’s continuing analysis of how the
economic situation affects the origin and destination countries
in both the short and medium term, as well as in advising governments
on specific policy responses to meet this challenge. In this respect,
it particularly welcomes the recent publication of the International
Migration Outlook 2011.
26. The enlarged Assembly recognises that Europe is an immigration
continent – and it is in its interest to be one. Care should be
taken to ensure that the tightening of border controls and the denying
of opportunities for legal entry or family reunification do not
increase irregular migration and public resentment of foreigners. This
could lead to xenophobia and sow the seeds of social conflict, as
well as tension in inter-state relations.
27. The enlarged Assembly is convinced that the present economic
crisis could be turned into a great opportunity for laying the basis
for the sound management of human mobility in the future. The current
potential dangers could be minimised through timely preventive measures.
It therefore calls on the member states to adopt flexible immigration
policies congruent with current and anticipated labour needs; to
avoid populist, inward-looking policies; and to introduce proactive
labour-market measures, notably through job creation.
Education and science
28. The enlarged Assembly takes note with interest of
the new outcomes of the latest PISA studies (Programme for International
Student Assessment), in particular the analysis of the positive
reactions of disadvantaged students when encouraged to apply themselves
to PISA tests and training and the indications showing that repetition
of grades and transfer of under-performing students often has a
negative effect on overall educational levels.
29. The enlarged Assembly welcomes the new Skills Strategy adopted
at the OECD’s May 2011 ministerial-level meeting, which emphasises
the need to promote lifelong learning as a condition for lifelong
employability. It also shares the general thrust of the OECD’s approach
to “21st-century learning”, emphasising the growing need for creative
and critical approaches to problem solving and decision making,
for new ways of working, including communication and collaboration,
and new tools, such as the capacity to exploit the potential of
new technologies or to avert their risks. The enlarged Assembly
agrees fully with the need to provide more incentives for education
across disciplines and to develop the capacity and motivation to
identify, understand, interpret, create and communicate knowledge.
30. Considering the concerted and co-ordinated drafting of the
OECD Guidelines on the Protection of Privacy and Transborder Flows
of Personal Data and the Council of Europe Convention for the Protection
of Individuals with regard to Automatic Processing of Personal Data
(ETS No. 108), the enlarged Assembly invites both organisations
to pursue their close co-operation in order to maintain the consistency
and convergence of the respective frameworks. The OECD is in particular
invited to encourage participation of its non-European member states
in the modernisation of Convention No. 108 and to promote accession
to this instrument. The enlarged Assembly also encourages the further
common development of the Global Privacy Enforcement Network.