Brussels, 12/06/2013 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 12 June, the European Parliament adopted, by an overwhelming majority, the inter-institutional agreement on the revision of the accounting directives.
As of 2015, European companies active in the mining and forestry industries must shed light on the payments, taxes and bonuses they pay every year, for each project, to third countries in excess of €100,000 (100,000 dollars in the United States) (see EUROPE 10824).
Arlene McCarthy (S&D, UK), who headed up this dossier for the EP, welcomed the “very high bar” set by the EU with this directive, which will serve as an example to other jurisdictions. Rules on the transparency of the mining industries have been adopted in Switzerland, whilst Canada announced on Wednesday that it was working on the issue. This is evidence that a movement is underway, a few days ahead of the G8 summit.
On behalf of the “Publish what you pay” campaign, Nigeria's Ali Idrissa described the EP's vote as a “blessing”. He added: “Our countries are extremely rich in resources, but lag behind in human development (…). This law will allow us to know who is doing a bad job, out of our leaders who receive the income from the natural resources, or the companies which do not pay the countries for the resources to allow them to work for their development”. Jean-Claude Katende said that the NGOs from the whole world and the communities of the resource-rich countries now have a tool to “hold our governments to account on the revenue generated and what this has been spent on”.
Other sectors. Commissioner for the Internal Market Michel Barnier expressed his hopes that the proposal on the non-financial liability of companies would oblige “large European businesses to say what tax they pay, to whom, how much and where”. He hopes that European operators will be subjected to a due diligence rule when they import “conflict minerals”, with a consultation of the European Commission underway on this issue. (MB/transl.fl)