On Wednesday it was my
pleasure to attend the launch event of D-EITI,
the German Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative in Berlin.
Germany recently announced its intention to adopt EITI, as part of a wave of OECD countries
moving to take their verbal support of this initiative for over 10 years, and
put it into practice.
The event attracted a
wide range of stakeholders and would appear to have set the stage for a strong,
constructive multi-stakeholder process. I think there is
going to be some interesting debate to be had about exactly what Germany is
looking to achieve through EITI, and what D-EITI will look like. Indeed, the
opinions presented throughout the event swung from initially conservative,
through a wave of highly progressive enthusiasm, and back to some pragmatic and
more realistic guidance.
After a welcome and
scene-setter from Dr Wolfgang Scheremet of the Federal Ministry for Economic
Affairs and Energy (BMWi), the event opened with Clare Short, Chair of the EITI
Board giving a comprehensive history of EITI. As well as explaining the initial
catalysts of the initiative, and acknowledging the contribution of Tony Blair
in a way only Clare Short could, she set out some of the successes of EITI and
some challenges for the multi-stakeholder group (“MSG”).
She identified two of
the successes of EITI being:
- Demands for transparency now being seen as normal; and
- The great advantages for all stakeholders of having constructive engagement between the three constituencies represented in the MSG (government, business and civil society).
The three challenges put
to D-EITI were:
- To make EITI serve Germany, rather than just being a show of support for EITI in principle;
- To drive transparency first, though open, transparency and robust systems, which then facilitate EITI transparency at the minimum incremental effort and cost; and
- To ensure that the civil society representations are relevant to Germany, and not just the excellent contribution from PWYP.
It was then the turn of
Uwe Beckmeyer of BMWi, the face (or as he preferred to put if the voice) of D-EITI.
He set out his vision that Germany adopting EITI should act as an example to
others, specifically calling on Brazil, South Africa and India to sign up. He
clearly sees D-EITI as a political message to other countries to improve
transparency and for Germany to be a role model internationally.
There were then presentations and a panel representing the MSG. It was at this point that a
number of proposals going far beyond the current remit of EITI were floated.
These ranged from extending D-EITI so as to cover tax payments made by German
businesses around the world, not just in Germany (which sounds like the new EU Accounting and Transparency Directives than EITI), to extending
transparency to the energy sector, renewables or even right throughout the
supply chain. The suggestion was that D-EITI could be a progressive
transparency regime going beyond the proposals being discussed internationally
under other initiatives.
It was somewhat
reassuring then to hear from Peter Eigen (former Chair of the EITI Board, and
wise head on all things EITI) and Marinke van Riet (International Director,
PWYP), both of whom congratulated Germany on embracing EITI, but advised
caution and moderation.
Peter suggested the MSG should
not move too fast and risk losing the consensus so important to the MSG
process; to try things, and if they work look to extend and expand. Marinke reinforced
the support for mandatory transparency requirements such as Dodd-Frank, the EU
Directives and what is being proposed elsewhere, and called on D-EITI to look
to mirror the requirements of the EU Directives. She specifically called for
project level reporting, €100,000 limit, and (possibly most challenging) to
publish reports with data which is 1 year old, rather than 2 years which is
more usual for EITI.
No comments:
Post a Comment