UK Prime Minister Cameron Backs Country-by-Country Company Accounting

Liberal Democrats MEPs certainly made their mark in Europe. At last year's EU Leaders Summit David Cameron, the UK Prime Minister, and the other EU Leaders have agreed that they are at last going to require proper transparency from multi-national groups and companies regarding their financial accounting.

The provision to extend Country-by-Country Reporting to groups and companies within the EU was welcomed at the time by Liberal Democrat Sharon Bowles, former South East Region MEP and former Chair of the European Parliament's Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee which had long been pressing for such a move.

"It is very good that David Cameron has backed Country-by-Country Reporting" , Sharon Bowles said last year. "The conclusions of the EU Summit in Brussels make for interesting reading. The Prime Minister and EU Leaders are at last going to force proper transparency on companies.

"I have long been pushing, and making legislative amendments, for every multinational company in Europe to disclose how much money they make, and how much tax they pay in each country in which they operate - also known as Country-by-Country Reporting.

"My efforts have been blocked at almost every stage by certain European Ministers until early in 2013 when we managed to get the ball rolling for global banks reporting on a country-by-country level in the new EU bank capital rules. But at that time they were still unwilling to have a wider application to all multinationals in the Transparency and Accounting Directives, changes which were also resisted by many MEPs."

"Fortunately the UK Government came to its senses late in the day. They have finally recognised that the EU can help save the UK economy up to £14 billion a year by cracking down on corporate tax evasion."