The European Union directives create a binding legal requirement for EU-listed and large privately owned oil, gas, mining and logging companies to publish— country by country and project by project—all payments of more than €100,000 to governments wherever they operate. This brings the European Union in line with similar rules that take effect this year in the United States under the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act.

In Canada, Prime Minister Harper announced that the government of Canada intends to establish a new, mandatory reporting regime with a view to “improving transparency, ensuring Canada’s framework is consistent with existing international standards and aligned with other G-8 countries, ensuring a level playing field for companies operating domestically and abroad, enhancing investment certainty, helping reinforce the integrity of Canadian extractive companies, and helping to ensure that citizens in resource-rich countries around the world are better informed and benefit from the natural resources in their country.”