OECD SUSPENDS PARTICIPATION OF RUSSIA AND BELARUS IN ORGANISATION‘S ACTIVITIES

On March 8 the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) decided to suspend the participation of Russia and Belarus in all OECD bodies, including the meetings of the OECD Competition Committee and its subsidiary bodies.

The OECD Council and the OECD Secretary General condemned the invasion of the Ukraine sovereign territory by Russia as a clear violation of international law and a serious threat to the rules-based international order.

On 3 March the heads of the Lithuanian, Estonian, Latvian and Polish competition authorities sent joint statements to the OECD and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development urging to suspend Russia’s and its individual experts’ participation in any form at all their organised upcoming events on competition issues. The authorities highlighted that the entire international community must firmly condemn Russia‘s aggression which is a blatant violation of international law and all civilized norms.

On 25 February a similar statement was sent by the Baltic competition authorities also to the governing bodies of the International Competition Network. The statement emphasising that Russia‘s aggression violates fundamental values protected by competition policy, i. e. the well-being of citizens, businesses and society as a whole, and urging Russia’s political isolation, was later supported by competition authorities in Poland, the Netherlands and other countries.

After consultation with the members, on 2 March Andreas Mundt, Chair of the ICN Steering Group, decided to suspend Russia‘s participation in the network’s activities.