The EU transparency and accounting directives

Abstract

Europe's energy companies power societies and employ many thousands of Europeans and non-Europeans worldwide. These companies connect the supplying nations, rich in natural resources, with markets surging with demand for petroleum and natural gas, enabling our technology-driven world to function and prosper. Within the FT rankings of the top 100 listed companies, seven companies are European oil, gas or mining companies (BHP, Shell, BP, Total, Rio Tinto, Eni, Statoil), while four are US companies and nine are companies domiciled in the so-called BRIC-countries. These large multinationals have hundreds of subsidiaries and worldwide operations across more than 100 countries. They are governed by a number of regulatory and legislative authorities, including, in Europe, the legal framework and authorities of the EU. In June 2013, the EU's legislators, the European Parliament and the Council of the EU, agreed on the revised Transparency and Accounting Directives with rules that apply to major corporations in general, and to those in the extractive and primary logging industries in particular. These new pieces of EU law require major companies to disclose certain information on a country-by-country basis. The nature and rationale of these ground-breaking new laws are explained further.