Euro MP Sharon Bowles hails tough new rules on corporate transparency

The European Parliament's Legal Affairs Committee has today voted through tough new amendments to the EU's Transparency and Accounting Directives, ensuring that certain industry sectors can no longer continue to hide profits made in the developing world.

Sharon Bowles MEP tabled amendments calling on multinationals in extractive, construction, telecommunications, and banking sectors to produce a comprehensive report on their business activities in any country in which they operate.

After much political negotiation, the JURI Committee also voted for extractive industries to report their payments to host governments on a project by project basis. This vote comes after the Securities and Exchange Commission in the US voted for similar far-reaching rules.

Speaking from Brussels today, Sharon Bowles MEP said:

"Greedy multinationals can no longer get away with opacity. New rules on country by country and project by project reporting, voted through today, will shine a light on the darkest corners of corporate activity in the developing world.

"Whether or not it is extractive industries, such as oil drilling and mineral mining, high-tech industries, such as construction and telecommunications, or banks, multinationals operating abroad will have to be more transparent in their business dealings from now on.

"I have been pushing for more sectors to come under the umbrella of these new rules, as well as disclosures of business activity to be legally binding. I am very pleased that the JURI Committee in the European Parliament has today voted for the same.

"As Kofi Annan wrote in the New York Times last week: 'The ultimate goal is a transparent and accountable sector-generating financial firepower that will enable countries that have previously lagged behind to accelerate rapidly toward the Millennium Development Goals.'"

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