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The Rt Hon George Osborne MP Chancellor of the Exchequer HM Treasury 1 Horseguards Road London SW1A 2HQ
12 November 2012
Dear Chancellor Request for meeting to discuss EU Transparency Directive implementation This letter is to request a meeting with you to discuss implementation of the new EU Transparency Directive. As members of the Publish What You Pay UK coalition, we were very pleased that the European Union signed into law the new Transparency Directive last month and published the Directive in the EU Official Journal on 6 November. As you know, Article 6 of the Directive requires EU-listed oil, gas, mining and logging companies to report, in accordance with Chapter 10 of the new Accounting Directive, on their payments to governments, country by country and project by project. The Transparency Directive will help create a global level playing field for extractive industry companies by bringing under the EU’s disclosure rules EU-listed companies not registered in the EU/EEA, such as Russia’s Gazprom. We welcome the Directive’s clear language on investor protection, universality (no exemptions) and comprehensiveness (all relevant payments to governments). We congratulate the UK Government’s leadership in championing this new global extractive industry financial transparency standard in the EU, in the G8 and in the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI). We also appreciate the UK’s public commitment, in the context of both the G8 and OGP Summits, to quickly implement the EU Directives. Further, we commend you personally for having been one of the EU’s early champions of extractive industry transparency for the benefit of the poorest communities. In 2011 you told the G20 Paris meeting: “I strongly believe it's in everyone's interests that mining companies and others operate to the highest standards ... to ensure some of the world's poorest benefit from the wealth that lies in the ground beneath them.”1 Our coalition has maintained good relations with the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills as it moves ahead with transposing the
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/feb/20/george-osborne-oil-mining-africa
Publish What You Pay, c/o Open Society Foundation, 7th Floor, Millbank Tower, 21-24 Millbank, London SW1P 4QP, UK tel. +44 (0)20 7031 1701; www.publishwhatyoupay.org
Accounting Directive. We are keen to ensure a similar productive working relationship with HMT as you lead on implementing the Transparency Directive. We would therefore welcome a meeting with you at your earliest convenience to discuss transposition and how we can support you in ensuring that UK implementation is a model of legislative effectiveness. To arrange a meeting with us, please contact Miles Litvinoff, Publish What You Pay UK Coordinator (mlitvinoff@pwypuk.org, 020 7031 1701, 07984 720103). We look forward to hearing from you. Yours sincerely
Matthew Frost Chief Executive Tearfund
Neil Thorns Director of Advocacy CAFOD
Adrian Lovett Europe Director ONE
Gavin Hayman Director Global Witness
Robert Barrington Executive Director Transparency International UK
Laura James CEO Open Knowledge Foundation
Laura Taylor Head of Advocacy Christian Aid cc David Gauke MP, Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury
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