Businesses and NGOs working in the mining, oil and gas industry joined forced with the Government today to mark the launch of the UK’s implementation of the Extractives Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI).

The Initiative, which was set up to increase transparency, improves the way revenues from oil, gas and minerals are managed and makes sure that people across the world share in the economic benefits of the natural resources in their country.

Publish What You Pay International Director Marinke van Riet said:

“Publish What You Pay welcomes the UK government’s decision to become an EITI member and to be more publicly accountable to UK citizens for its stewardship of our country’s non-renewable natural resources.

“We look forward to a meaningful UK process under the EITI’s recently strengthened transparency rules, which apply equally to developed and developing countries. The voluntary EITI usefully complements oil, gas and mining companies’ mandatory country and project-level reporting of payments to governments that US and EU law now require, which is becoming the new global standard.”

The EITI multi-stakeholder group formed today will now work with government to decide how the framework for reporting will operate, the scope of companies included and how payments are disclosed.

Last month the European Union formally adopted Chapter 9 of the EU Accounting Directive. This robust set of extractives transparency rules advocated by the UK Government will ensure those in the gas, oil and mining industry report the payments they make to governments in all the countries they operate in.