Brussels, 18/09/2012 (Agence Europe) - A decisive stage for greater transparency in the extractive industries sector of the EU was crossed on Tuesday 18 September at the European Parliament (EP) which took a stance in favour of regulations that make it an obligation for companies of the sector to publish full details of their payments to the governments of countries in which they operate.
The legal affairs committee of the European Parliament adopted the EP's negotiating mandate on the proposal relating to securing prospection, exploration and oil and gas production offshore activities. The text would make it an obligation for mining, oil, gas and forestry companies to publish details of their activities and above all details of their accounting on a project by project basis.
Catherine Olier, from Oxfam, said “today's vote represents a real step forward in the fight against corruption”. The anti-poverty campaign NGO, ONE, welcomed the fact that, “if agreed by EU member states, the laws will bring Europe in line with new US rules adopted in August, paving the way towards a global extractives transparency standard”.
The text adopted considerably improves a first proposal made in October last year by the European Commission. MEPs refused any exemption for countries where criminal laws ban the publication of payments. They also underlined the need for a project by project accounting system and gave a restrictive definition of the project as being any contract between the company and the host country. Finally, they said that each payment exceeding €80,000 should be placed in the public domain. (LC/transl.jl)