Financial Transparency Coalition

BRUSSELS - Transparency International EU warmly welcomes the agreement secured today on new rules for the EU extractive sector that requires oil, gas, mining and logging companies to disclose what they pay to governments around the world. The deal reached by negotiators from the European Parliament and the Irish EU Presidency means that companies will have to disclose details of tax, bonus and other payments made for every project they operate, over a threshold of €100,000. The rules apply to all listed and large unlisted companies registered in the EU without exemption.

$800 million. That’s the staggering amount of money said to be unlawfully transferred out of Iraq every week. Last month marked the ten year anniversary of the start of the occupation of Iraq by coalition forces. The aftermath of war and occupation has been ravaging well after the withdrawal of foreign troops. The US Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction has investigated corruption for nearly a decade involving US funds and recently released a final extensive report called Learning from Iraq.

The bail out of the troubled banking sector in Cyprus has taken on serious political overtones as the crisis deepens. During the past few weeks Cyprus has been accused of failing to combat money laundering and fraud and that Russian oligarchs seek refuge for their money in this “tax haven” country.

Voice of America (VOA) has begun an investigation into global corruption, the first segment of which aired this week, featuring the work of Task Force members Global Financial Integrity and Transparency International.