The European Parliament has adopted new measures whereby large multinational companies headquartered in the European Union will have to disclose details of the payment of taxes and duties to the states in which they operate. The vote gives Parliament an unequivocal mandate to negotiate the details of this legislation with the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, held by Luxembourg since 1 July. Most Eps members voted in favor of amendments to the Shareholders' Rights Directive, requiring multinational corporations to request public reporting, broken down by country, of financial information.

"This vote proves broad support for the opening of black boxes of multinational companies' finances," said Carl Dolan, Director of Transparency International UE. "All eyes are on the Luxembourg Presidency to ensure that this elemental measure of corporate transparency becomes law."

Amendments to the proposed law are designed to improve corporate governance standards in European companies and promote greater tax transparency by requiring multinational companies to disclose figures on profits, taxes and duties paid, revenue generated, and the number of employees in Each country where there are subsidiaries. Currently, multinational companies report operations in a consolidated global report, without the way of differentiating the company's contributions to each country.

Transparency International documented the precarious state of corporate transparency in a series of Transparency in Corporate Reporting, which evaluates the reporting practices of the 124 largest publicly listed companies with regard to anti-corruption programs and their share package, as well as the publication Broken down by country of key financial information. According to this report, 81% (101 out of 124 companies) achieved a score of less than 5 out of a maximum of 10 possible, in a general ranking system of transparency of corporate reporting. At the same time, 73% (90 out of 124) failed to disclose any information related to the payment of taxes and taxes in the foreign countries in which they operate.

For more information please contact:
TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL EU OFFICE
CARL DOLAN - Director
+32 (0) 2 893 24 55
cdolan @ transparency.org

TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL ROMĂNIA
+40 316 606 000
office @ transparency.org.ro