Greek candidate for OECD’s top job to push for ‘level playing field’

Greece’s candidate for the top job at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) would seek to enhance the organization’s post-pandemic role and create a “level playing field” to help eliminate global economic conflicts.

“After the pandemic, the OECD has to play a very important role at the global and national level. More important, the OECD has to spread its standards to 2.5 million more people in the next five years, Anna Diamantopoulou, a former European Union Commissioner and president of the Diktio think tank, told Bloomberg television on Monday.

Ensuring greater adherence to the OECD’s values and programs is a “fundamental precondition for creating a level playing field and a level playing field is a precondition for eliminating conflict.”

As a “pathfinder,” the Paris-based organization’s key priorities should be digital transformation, climate change and labor reform, she said.

Diamantopoulou went on to hail progress made between the European Union and China and expressed the belief that US President-elect Joe Biden will help further improve ties.

“Europe and the United States, the liberal democracies, have a better way to cooperate; its is not just trade or investments [but] their values, so I believe that there will be a diplomatic priority for this unity of the liberal world toward China,” she said.

At the European level, Diamantopoulou said, the priority should be on continuing to support jobs and businesses “until we reach a level of normality,” but she also pointed out that “European governments have to invest on digital transformation and green growth” as a priority.