The European Parliament is moving toward finalizing a new law that would force mining companies to disclose all details of payments to state and sub-state governments.
Arlene McCarthy (S&D, UK), responsible for the legislation, said: “This is a major step forward in the global fight against corruption. Parliament maintained a strong line during the tough negotiations with member states. As a result, project-level reporting, a low materiality threshold for disclosure and no exemptions from reporting payments were secured, giving communities in resource-rich countries the necessary tools to hold their governments to account for payments they receive from multinational companies.”Large extractive companies dealing with oil, gas and minerals will be obliged to disclose full details of their payments to national governments for every project that they operate, under a deal between Parliament and Council negotiators backed on Thursday by the legal affairs committee. The aim is to make companies dealing with strategic resources and national governments more accountable.
Read more about this transparency initiative here.