After Slovenia, Hungary also withholds support for Croatia's OECD membership

Hungary will not support Croatia's bid for membership in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) due to its stance towards MOL and its CEO Zsolt Hernádi, the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced.

In a statement carried by the Hungarian news agency MTI, the ministry stated that the situation surrounding MOL's investments in Croatia and the Croatian treatment of MOL's CEO Zsolt Hernádi are the main reasons for withdrawing support. Croatia initiated proceedings against Hernádi along with former Prime Minister Ivo Sanader, accusing him of bribing Sanader with 10 million euros during the sale of INA's stake.

Hungary will also not support Romania's bid for OECD membership due to the closure of a Catholic high school primarily attended by Hungarian children in Târgu Mureș, the ministry stated.

The ministry said that Hungary announced it would not support Zagreb and Bucharest at the OECD Council meeting on Friday in Paris.

Regarding INA-Mol relations, this consortium also purchased the Bosnian oil giant Energopetrol in Bosnia and Herzegovina under dubious circumstances, but MOL later ceded its stake to INA. Croatian INA now has the largest retail chain of oil and petroleum products in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Slovenia also announced a few days ago that it would not support Croatia's membership in the OECD, stating that Croatia does not respect international law because it refuses to implement the arbitration ruling on the Croatian-Slovenian border, as Slovenia compromised the arbitration process. This was also communicated to Brussels on Wednesday.

The OECD currently has 35 member states, the most economically developed countries. At the beginning of the year, Croatia sent a letter of intent to the OECD to join the organization, wishing to start negotiations after a decision on its next round of expansion, but the Slovenians and Hungarians have halted Croatia in this endeavor, reports the Patria agency.