Activities of Fiona HALL related to 2013/2126(INI)
Shadow reports (1)
REPORT on promoting development through responsible business practices, including the role of extractive industries in developing countries PDF (223 KB) DOC (107 KB)
Amendments (21)
Amendment 3 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A
Recital A
A. whereas for many developing countries miningnatural resource extraction accounts for a significant proportion of GDP and often for the bulk of foreign exchange earnings and foreign investment;
Amendment 7 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E
Recital E
E. whereas the benefits of mining for local populations often fail to materialise or are cancelled outheavily outweighed by negative social and environmental impacts;
Amendment 13 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital H
Recital H
H. whereas forced labour, and the denial of trade union and collective bargaining rights and lack and breaches ofremain major concerns; whereas likewise the often extremely poor or absent health and safety standards aremain maj a huge cause for concerns, especially in small-scale mininges, which often operate in very precarious conditions;
Amendment 15 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital K
Recital K
K. whereas in order to increase efficiency and achieve equity in the field of CSR, a move away from the current ‘à la carte’ system, in which companies choose codes and standards according to their own preferences, towards a legally binding general CSR framework and industry- specific implementationcommon industry- wide standards is of primary importance;
Amendment 16 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital L
Recital L
L. whereas greenwashing - projecting an image of supposedly positive environmental action in order to deceive the public and draw attention away from practices harmful to the environment - misleads consumers, the general public and regulators regarding environmental performance and undermines the pursuit of responsible business conduct and for these reasons must be combatted; whereas more generally companies using CSR as a marketing tool must ensure that any claims made are accurate;
Amendment 19 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital M
Recital M
M. whereas mostalthough many African countries have in the past two decades carried out far- reaching economic, trade and investment liberalisation which has increased the structural vulnerabilities of the mineral- producing countries; whereas today, instead of, they have not achieved significant economic diversification, theyand have on average less diversified economies that are more concentrated, for instance, in low value- added mineral and agricultural exports, both of which are extremely sensitive to external price shocks;
Amendment 27 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Emphasises the need for a regional and international approach ines to curbing the illegal exploitation of natural resources; encourages developing countries to take steps to formalise the artisanal and small- scale mining sector in order to improve livelihoods, secure living wages and integrate the ASM sector into the rural and national economy, while providing accessible financial and technical support to this end and assuring a legal regime that gives ASM rights-holders sufficient land and security of tenure; calls on the EU to help developing countries raise capacity locally to run tracking and certification schemes before enforcing bans on transporting non-compliant minerals;
Amendment 39 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. Believes that the mining industry could and should make valuable contributions to climate change mitigation through technology transfer and responsible investment; stresses, in particular, that large-scale mining companies can potentially provide the know-how for emission mitigation in the small and medium-sized mining sector; reiterates its call on the EU to seek agreements on climate financing, technology transfer and capacity building and to upgrade its assistance to developing countries for CO2 emission reduction;
Amendment 40 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15
Paragraph 15
15. Calls for the effective implementation of the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises (MNEs), the UN Global Compact (UNGC) and the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGP) through legally binding mechanisms, including at industrial sector levelcommon industry-wide mechanisms;
Amendment 41 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15 a (new)
Paragraph 15 a (new)
15a. Calls on the EEAS and Commission to ensure that EU trade officers, if based in EU delegations, are given regular training on CSR issues;
Amendment 42 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15 b (new)
Paragraph 15 b (new)
15b. Calls on the Commission to actively promote responsible business conduct among EU companies operating abroad, ensuring strict compliance with all legal obligations, in particular with international standards and rules in the field of human rights, labour and the environment;
Amendment 44 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16
Paragraph 16
16. Stresses that the thematic scope of different CSR implementation schemes is often selective: social and environmental issues are rarely included in the same scheme; considers such a fragmented approach to be detrimental to an assessment of the overall sustainable performance of a company; considers that while those general frameworks have developed a common understanding and language for CSR principles, they should also form the basis for legally bindingcommon industry- wide international standards on what constitutes responsible business;
Amendment 45 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18
Paragraph 18
18. Calls on the EU to use its trade and investment relations with key partner countries (e.g. US, China, Japan, Brazil and India) to foster a dialogue on CSR; urges also the EU to conduct sustainability impact assessments of proposed trade agreements before entering the negotiation phase; calls for CSR reporting obligations on companies to be included in investment treainvestment treaties to foster positive CSR practices;
Amendment 47 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 19
Paragraph 19
19. Notes that the current international trade and investment regime may constrains the ability of developing countries to use the full range of instruments that were formerly exploited by now developed countries as part of their industrialisation strategies; stresses that trade agreements should respect developing countries’ need to diversify their economies and upgrade their technologies;
Amendment 48 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 20
Paragraph 20
20. Deplores the factRecognise the importance of foreign direct investment for industrial growth while noting that overly generous terms for foreign direct investment (FDI) in mining offered by developing countries under World Bank and IMF influence in the 1980s and 1990s have prevented them from gaining a fair share of profits from the exploitation of their natural resources and thereby deprived these countries of resources badly needed for their social and economic development;
Amendment 50 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 22
Paragraph 22
22. Calls onUrges the EU and its Member States to implement the 10 principles of the UN Special Representative on Business and Human Rights that aim to integrate the management of human rights risks into state-investor contract negotiations, so as to ensure that stabilisation clauses do not compromise protection of and respect for human rights; calls on the EU to support capacity building in developing countries for negotiation and implementation of human rights and sustainable development clauses in investment agreements;
Amendment 52 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 24
Paragraph 24
Amendment 55 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 26
Paragraph 26
26. Stresses the need to negotiate and implement tax treaties with developing countries to ensure that multinational enterprises pay their fair share of taxes; calls, more broadly, on the EU to enhance support for assisting developing countries in tax reforms and strengthening tax administrations, so as to enable adequate capture, management and sharing of mineral revenue, and to work to put in place free trade agreements which remove tariff escalation on selected finished goods that could hinder the processing and manufacture of mineral-based value-added products, thereby hampering the strategy of economic diversification of developing countries;
Amendment 57 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 28 a (new)
Paragraph 28 a (new)
28a. Welcomes the recent revision of the Transparency and Accounting Directives which introduces reporting obligations on payments to governments for the extractives and logging industries; urges the Member States to implement these directives rapidly; calls for the revenue data collected to be available in as open and accessible a format as possible;
Amendment 58 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 29
Paragraph 29
29. Calls on authorities to ensure that mining licences and other assets are sold or granted through open and transparent bidding processes; calls on authorities to publish contracts, including annexes, maps and all financial details, as a means of preventing corruption; calls on authorities and the companies concerned to produce a full list of shareholders of all mining companies, particularly for any new deals, and a full list of those benefiting systematically from these deals, as a means of preventing corruption; calls on authorities and companies to ensure all payments to government are published in a widely accessible manner; calls on the EU to require extractives companies listed in Europe to publish any contracts agreed to;
Amendment 64 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 33
Paragraph 33
33. Points out that most initiatives launched internationally against conflict minerals aim to encourage responsible conduct by industries that buy the minerals, through certification systems for smelters; calls for the inclusion of social and environmental aspects in all certification programmes, including by taking into account labour conditions and rights, safety and the health of miners and communities directly affected by mining activities;