France

Recent activities

Last Update 10.06.10

Taking advantage of the fact that a large number of francophone PWYP activists were travelling through Paris, on their way home from Montreal in November 2009, the French PWYP platform organised several meetings in Paris. These meetings began with a round-table at the Secours Catholique headquarters. Participants at the PWYP global conference offered a report of the debates that took place in Montreal, as well as a discussion on the advancement of transparency through the PWYP campaign and the EITI. Oxfam France also took the opportunity to announce the publication of a new report titled “Lever la malediction des resources: Comment les pauvres peuvent et devraient profiter des revenus de l’industrie extractive”. An exchange with journalists ended the round-table morning. In the afternoon, PWYP delegates divided into two groups for lobby meetings with nuclear giant Areva and oil major Total – both companies are represented on the International Board of the EITI.

The next day the PWYP delegation visited the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Various issues were raised: French representatives were asked to support national legislation (the ESTT Act in the USA) and international legislation (European Transparency Obligations Directive and International Accounting Standards work) strengthening disclosure procedures, as well as strongly encouraging French companies to join the EITI at the international level. In response, Ministry representatives promised to better coordinate French representations and embassies abroad (especially in Africa) in order to assist PWYP members more effectively with their work on EITI implementation.

PWYP France is liaising with the French platform Paradis Fiscaux et Judiciaires on concrete actions as part of the IASB consultation on a new international accounting standard for the extractive industries. Meetings between the two networks took place in late May and early June.