Activities of Birgit SCHNIEBER-JASTRAM related to 2011/0308(COD)
Shadow opinions (1)
OPINION on the proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the annual financial statements, consolidated financial statements and related reports of certain types of undertakings
Amendments (6)
Amendment 23 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 32
Recital 32
(32) In order to provide for enhanced transparency of payments made to governments, large undertakings and public interest entities which are active in the extractive industry or logging of primary forests should disclose in a separate report on an annual basis material payments made to governments in the countries in which they operate. Such undertakings are active in countries rich in natural resources, in particular minerals, oil, natural gas as well as primary forests. The report should include types of payments comparable toall also specify the specific project or projects to which those payments have been attributed and should build upon those disclosed by an undertaking participating inure requirement of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI). The initiative is also complementary to the EU FLEGT Action Plan (Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade) and the Timber Regulation which require traders of timber products to exercise due diligence in order to prevent illegal wood from entering into the EU market.
Amendment 26 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 33
Recital 33
(33) The reports should serve to facilitate governments of resource-rich countries in implementing the EITI Principles and Criteria and account to their citizens for payments such governments receive from undertakings active in the extractive industry or loggers of primary forests operating within their jurisdiction. The report should incorporate disclosures on a country and project basis, where a project is considered as the lowest level of operational reporting unit at which the undertaking prepares regular internal management reports, such as a concession, geographical basin, etc and wequivalent to the contract, license, lease, concession or other legal agreement which gives rise to a company's tax and revenue liabilities in each country where it operates. Where any payments have been attributed to such project liabilities are incurred on a different basis, reporting shall be on that basis. In the light of the overall objective of promoting good governance in these countries, the materiality of payments to be reported should be assessed in relation to the recipient government. Various criteria on materiality could be envisaged such as payments of an absolute amoupayments shall be considered material if any one payment, or a percentage threshold (such as payments in excess of a percentage of a country's GDP) and these can be defined through a delegated actset of payments of the same type amounts to more than EUR 15 000. The reporting regime should be subject to a review and a report by the Commission within five years of the entry into force of the Directive. The review should consider the effectiveness of the regime and take into account international developments including issues of competitiveness and energy security. The review should also take into account the experience of preparers and users of the payments information and consider whether it would be appropriate to include additional payment information such as effective tax rates and recipient details, such as bank account information.
Amendment 28 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 38
Recital 38
(38) This Directive respects the fundamental rights and observes the principles recognised in particular by the Charter of the Fundamental Rights of the European Union and Article 208 TFEU,
Amendment 37 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 37 – paragraph 1
Article 37 – paragraph 1
1. Member States shall require large undertakings and all public interest entities active in the extractive industry or the logging of primary forests to prepare and make public a report on payments, including payments in kind, made to governments on an annual basis.
Amendment 38 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 38 – paragraph 1 – point a a (new)
Article 38 – paragraph 1 – point a a (new)
(aa) The report shall, where those payments have been attributed to a specific project, also include the amount per type of payment, including payments in kind, made for each such project within a financial year, and the total amount of payments for each such project.
Amendment 43 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 39 – paragraph 1
Article 39 – paragraph 1
1. A Member State shall require any large undertaking or any public interest entity active in the extractive industry or the logging of primary forests and governed by its national law to draw up a consolidated report on payments to governments in accordance with Articles 37 and 38 if that parent undertaking is under the obligationobliged to prepare consolidated financial statements as laid down in Article 23(1) to 23(6) of this Directive.