Building upon efforts already underway in the U.S., members of the European Union on Tuesday reached a preliminary agreement to adopt new rules requiring oil, gas, and mining companies to report payments made to governments for extraction rights.
In August, the Securities and Exchange Commission issued a final rule that, as mandated by the Dodd-Frank Act, requires such reporting from publicly traded companies in the U.S. Although similar to that legislation’s “Cardin-Lugar” provision, the European directive goes further by requiring both public and privately-held companies to disclose their payments. It was also expanded to include the timber industry.
