This year’s OECD Ministerial Council Meeting (MCM) was held at the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Quai d'Orsay) in Paris on 23-24 May 2006 under the chairmanship of Kostas Karamanlis, Prime Minister of Greece, with the overarching theme of “Delivering Prosperity”.

Ministers from OECD countries discussed: 

• the short-term economic outlook
• how to ensure economic stability and improve economic performance
• how to implement economic reforms for growth and employment
• the follow-up to last December's WTO ministerial meeting in Hong Kong
• the future strategic direction of the OECD

Selected emerging and developing economies were invited to send representatives to some sessions of the meeting. In parallel, participants were invited to join discussions at the OECD Forum 2006, which brought together leaders of governments, business, labour, civil society and the media to debate the issues on the Ministerial agenda. The Forum took place on 22-23 May 2006 at the Centre International de Conférences in Paris. 

At the end of May, Donald J. Johnston completed his second five-year term  the current Secretary-General. Following the ministerial meeting, he handed over office to his successor, former Mexican finance minister Angel Gurría, who was selected by OECD countries last November as the next Secretary-General and who formally took up office on June 1 2006.