Take action now: Open up the books!

From Cambodia and Peru to the Democratic Republic of Congo, when minerals are exploited for profit, all too often local communities do not benefit from the wealth beneath their feet.

Take action today: stop communities being kept in the dark.

Secrecy about payments and contracts increases the risk of bad deals and corruption. But when people know what revenues their governments are receiving from natural resources, they have the chance to demand a fair deal.

Thanks to your campaigning, our government now supports new EU legislation to make sure multinational companies open their books on the tax and revenue payments they make to governments worldwide.

After years of calling for change, we’re now so close. But industry lobbyists are fighting hard to water down the proposals.

On 20 February EU ministers met to discuss these proposals. Discussions continue until 31 May.

Please email Chancellor George Osborne and the Minister for Business, Innovation and Skills Norman Lamb today. Simply use the form opposite to send an email to both ministers. Tell them why you feel it’s important for businesses to open up their books.

Need more detail? Read our briefing paper>>

Find out more: Questions and answers on corruption >>

Read the latest news on the campaign >>

a long struggle

We've been calling for greater transparency in the gas, oil and mining industries since 2002 when we helped found Publish What You Pay . In 2002, the UK government launched the voluntary Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative - showing it was possible for companies to declare information about payments. However the scheme was only voluntary, so progress was slow and many resource-rich countries simply opted out.

At the Teatime for Change mass lobby of parliament in 2010, thousands of you made the case to your MPs for binding legislation that applies to all companies and countries. The proposed EU legislation follows in the footsteps of ground-breaking US legislation passed in 2010 requiring reporting of company payments on a country and a project basis.

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