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For Immediate Release
Contact:

Jennifer Tong, Communications Director
jennifer@jubileeusa.org / (m) (320) 241-7082 / (o) (202) 543-0692

Jubilee USA Network Releases Statement on EU Agreement Extractive Industry Transparency

EU Agreement Stronger than Dodd-Frank

WASHINGTON

Today the European Commission, the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union agreed on a compromised text of the European Union Accounting and Transparency Directives. This law will order EU-listed and non-listed oil, gas, mining and the logging firms to declare their payments to governments in countries where they operate - much like Dodd-Frank Section 1504 in the US. Before being fully adopted, the Directives have to be approved by the European Parliament's Legal Affairs Committee and then by the full sitting European Parliament. Jubilee USA Network Executive Director, Eric LeCompte, releases the following statement on the agreement:
"This is an exciting agreement and even goes further than Dodd-Frank. When this is enacted it will create more transparency in oil, gas, mining and logging industries.

"Every year, poor countries lose more to tax dodging than they receive in aid. This is an important step to ensure multinational corporations pay taxes to poor countries. This is a needed step to curb corruption and the practices that hurt the world's most vulnerable."

Jubilee USA Network is an interfaith, non-profit alliance of religious, development and advocacy organizations. We are 75 U.S. institutions and more than 750 faith groups working across the United States and around the globe. We address the structural causes of poverty and inequality in our communities and countries around the world.

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