GENEVA, June 12, 2013 – The Africa Progress Panel welcomes Canada’s announcement today that it will establish new mandatory reporting standards for Canadian extractive companies. The APP also applauds today’s plenary vote in the European Parliament approving EU Transparency and Accounting Directives. Canada, which is home to some of the world’s largest mining companies, has long been seen as reluctant to embrace the trend to improve transparency in extractive industries. Canada’s announcement that it will now establish new mandatory reporting standards brings the country in-line with the direction taken by the US and the EU. The vote in the European Parliament creates a binding legal requirement for EU-listed and large privately owned oil, gas, mining and logging companies to publish all payments over €100,000 to governments in every country where they operate. This brings the EU in line with similar extractive industry transparency rules in the United States, under the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, that will take effect this year. “This is a good day for transparency and is a major step towards a world where developing countries are paid fair prices for their mineral resources,” says Caroline Kende-Robb, Executive Director of the Africa Progress Panel. “These developments, coming only days before the G8 Summit in Lough Erne in Northern Ireland next week, increase the chances that the G8 Summit will provide agreements for strong action to improve rules to fight tax avoidance an evasion, and ensure transparency in extraction deals. It has become increasingly clear that governments and business understand very well the benefits of transparency for political and social stability”. Chaired by Kofi Annan, the former Secretary-General of the United Nations, the Africa Progress Panel (the Panel) includes distinguished individuals from the private and public sectors, who advocate on global issues of importance to Africa and the world. These complex, high-impact issues include global governance, food security, sustainable economic development, and the Millennium Development Goals, which all require engagement from a wide range of stakeholders within and outside the continent. For further information, please contact Edward Harris, Head of Communications Office: + 41 22 919 75 36 Mobile: +41 79 873 8322 Or Alinka Brutsch Bureau: +41 22 919 75 38 Mobile: +41 78 944 71 15 www.africaprogresspanel.org and www.facebook.com/africaprogresspanel @africaprogress and #APR2013
