Publish What You Pay calls for conclusive EU transparency vote and action on all sectors Publish What You Pay, the global civil society coalition working for transparency and accountability in the world’s oil, gas and mining industries, is calling for European Union institutions to conclusively deliver country-by-country and project-by-project reporting rules for extractive companies and to advance momentum for full country-by-country reporting by all other industry sectors. Source: PWYP Coalition Date: 6 Jun 2013 European Parliament vote The European Parliament is due to hold a plenary vote on the EU Accounting and Transparency Directives on 12 June in Strasbourg.[1] Publish What You Pay wants to see a strong Parliament vote to adopt the Directives previously agreed between MEPs, Member States and the European Commission so that in-country implementation can begin promptly and to help establish a global transparency standard. After years of civil society campaigning, and long and detailed EU negotiations, and with the US already implementing country- and project-level reporting by oil, gas and mining companies under the Dodd-Frank Act, Publish What You Pay urges the EU to act without further delay to enable citizens of resource-rich countries to counter corruption and hold governments and companies to account for the wealth generated by their countries’ natural resources. The Directives will require all EU-listed and large private EU-registered oil, gas, mining and forestry companies to report all payments to governments of more than €100,000 for each country and every project they operate, without exemptions. Canada, Australia and other jurisdictions are considering the possibility of similar legislation. All sectors Publish What You Pay is also keen to recognise the extraordinary momentum within the EU towards requiring country-by-country reporting of taxes and other financial data by companies in all sectors. The EU has recently reached a political agreement on a new Capital Requirements Directive that will require banks to report from January 2015 onwards their profit or loss before tax, taxes, turnover, number of employees and public subsidies received for each country where they operate.[2] Discussions are now under way among Member States and MEPs and in the European Commission about extending financial transparency to all sectors, especially to tackle the widespread tax evasion and aggressive tax avoidance that cost governments billions of euros each year. UK Prime Minster David Cameron has made tax and transparency two of the three key themes (with trade) for this year’s G8 Summit, to be chaired by the UK on 17 and 18 June. Furthermore, the French National Assembly yesterday extended full country-by-country reporting rules for large companies to all sectors, having recently extended the rules to also cover the banking sector. Publish What You Pay urges the European Commission to come forward with a clear timetable and proposal for mandatory country-by-country reporting for all sectors. The coalition sees this as a crucial objective and wants to continue working with the European Parliament, Commission and Council to achieve it. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [1] Accounting Directive: europarl.europa.eu/oeil/popups/ficheprocedure.do?reference=2011/0308%28COD%29&l=en Transparency Directive: europarl.europa.eu/oeil/popups/ficheprocedure.do?reference=2011/0307%28COD%29&l=en [2] europarl.europa.eu/news/en/pressroom/content/20130225IPR06048/html/MEPs-cap-bankers%27-bonuses-and-step-up-bank-capital-requirements
Posted on: Sat, 08 Jun 2013 19:47:28 +0000
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