Anti-corruption watchdog Sherpa congratulates EU lawmakers on strong new rules adopted yesterday to make payments by oil, gas, mining and forestry companies to governments more transparent.
A Directive which will provide improved transparency
The EU’s Accounting and Transparency Directives will now require natural resource companies listed on European stock exchanges, as well as large,privately owned companies, to disclose all payments over €100,000 throughout their global operations.
Companies must report payments per individual investment project and there are no special circumstances for operations in particular countries – a loophole companies had argued for. The EU deal follows similar changes to the US Stock Exchange disclosure rules in 2010.
A real step forward for local communities
Sherpa President William Bourdon said: “In the face of a massive lobbying effort by companies, civil society globally through the Publish What You PayCampaign has achieved a huge success. This law will help citizens in poorer countries who want to know where their natural resource wealth is going and whether it is benefiting them, to hold companies and their governments to account”.
Sherpa’s groundbreaking work has documented and denounced illicit financial flows in the natural resource sector, for instance in the groundbreaking “Biens Mal-Acquis” or “Stolen Assets” case involving oil-rich Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon that is now before the French courts.
