The European Commission has adopted directives that seek to improve transparency of European multinationals active in the oil, gas, mining or logging sectors operating in developing countries.
The action fulfills the commission’s pledge at the African Union summit in January to lead the campaign for more transparency of such companies, according to European Commissioner for Internal Market and Financial Services Michel Barnier and European Commissioner for Development Andris Piebalgs.
The transparency and accounting directives will require listed and large non-listed companies with activities in the extractive and forestry industries to disclose payments to governments on country and project bases. They aim to contribute to the new European development cooperation policy, according to the commissioners.
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“Today, the Commission establishes itself as an avant-garde in promoting transparency and goes well beyond the US Dodd-Frank act, putting the interests of developing countries at the forefront of this European domestic legislation,” the two commissioners said in an Oct. 25 statement. “This will help to achieve a new step in the quality of our relations with Africa, based on mutual accountability and transparency.”
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