[open-government] Fwd: European Parliament moves forward on Transparency of Company Ownership

Fri Feb 21 17:16:47 UTC 2014

Some great news - might be of interest to many.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Access Info Europe <info at access-info.org>
Date: Fri, Feb 21, 2014 at 11:13 AM
Subject: European Parliament moves forward on Transparency of Company
Ownership
To: jkeseru at sunlightfoundation.com

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**European Parliament moves forward on Transparency of Company
Ownership**

Madrid, Friday 21 February 2014 – In an important move with
widespread implications for the defence of human rights and the fight
against corruption, the European Parliament moved a step closer
towards a legal obligation for companies to disclose their real or
“beneficial” owners on 20 February 2014.

The progress came in the form of a vote <http://t.co/rpqfdgMo6P>
 in favour of beneficial ownership transparency by Parliamentarians in
the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee (ECON) and the Civil
Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee (LIBE). These
parliamentarians voted that the future EU Anti-Money Laundering
Directive should require mandatory public registries of the beneficial
owners of companies.

Access Info Europe <http://www.access-info.org>
, an organisation which promotes the right of access to information,
called on the full European Parliament to adopt the Directive with
these provisions on transparency of beneficial ownership.

Access Info’s Executive Director Helen Darbishire explained the
importance of the proposed Directive: "If this becomes law and the
public can find out who really owns private companies, this will help
to combat corruption, to investigate human rights and environmental
violations, and to know who is behind the news we hear every day."

**The Link with Media Pluralism and Freedom of Expression**

Research by Access Info Europe, working with the Open Society Program
on Independent Journalism, published in 2013, found that it is not
possible to know who the beneficial or ultimate owners of the media
are in two thirds of countries (13 out of 19 European countries
surveyed). For more details on the research see here
<http://www.access-info.org/en/media-transparency>
.

In 2013 both the European Commission and the Council of the European
Union recognised the link between transparency of media ownership and
protecting media pluralism and freedom of expression.

Fiona Harrison, Consultant Researcher with Access Info Europe on the
Transparency of Media Ownership project, commented: “We welcome this
move by the European Parliament and urge the European Union to adopt
this directive which will contribute to protecting a plural and
diverse media space in Europe and hence to protecting the fundamental
right to freedom of expression.”

Access Info Europe noted that in 2013 many promises were made to
increase transparency of company ownership, including commitments
<
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/public-register-to-boost-company-transparency
>
 made by the G8 Countries in June 2013. Research by Access Info has
shown that currently it is still not possible to get the full set of
information contained in company registers in Europe.

If the EU's Anti-Money Laundering Directive (AMLD) is adopted by the
European Parliament in plenary in line with the position taken by the
ECON and LIBE Committees, then any company registered in an EU member
state would be required to provide information about its beneficial
owner including: name, date of birth, nationality, jurisdiction of
incorporation, contact details, number and categories of shares, and
– if applicable - the proportion of shareholding or control. For
details see the Global Witness report here
<
http://www.globalwitness.org/library/european-parliament-votes-end-anonymous-shell-companies
>
.

» See the European Parliament press release on the vote here
<
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/news-room/content/20140210IPR35562/html/Money-laundering-MEPs-vote-to-end-anonymity-of-owners-of-companies-and-trusts
>
.

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