On the heels of rulemaking by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission mandating the reporting of payments made to governments by oil, gas and mining companies, the European Parliament's Legal Affairs Committee this week voted in favor of similar requirements.

The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union. The proposal package now moves to a final vote by member nations.

In the U.S., reporting these payments, on a project-by-project basis, was among the anti-corruption measures contained in the Dodd-Frank Act (Section 1504). It covers approximately 1,100 oil, gas, and mining companies, including European-based corporations.

The European version goes even further by adding the logging industry to the list of industries that must comply and proposes the inclusion of the banking, construction, and telecommunication industries.

Like the U.S. version, there are no exemptions for companies that reach a defined payment threshold, even if such reporting is considered a violation of the host country's laws. In the U.S., the threshold is $100,000 in aggregated payments, while the European version sets that ceiling at €80,000 Euros per project.

Moving closer to a formal EU directive on these payments drew praise from Oxfam, an international relief agency that had pressured U.S. regulators to enact the Dodd-Frank provisions and sued the SEC over delays in doing so.

“Oil and mining companies should see this as an opportunity to push other countries to adopt similar legislation and work with civil society groups to ensure the transparency net is cast far and wide,” Ian Gary, senior policy manager with Oxfam's oil, gas, and mining program, said in a statement.

“Despite today's promising progress, there is still a long way to go to ensure that this legislation effectively combats issues of corruption that keep people in developing countries in a cycle of poverty, said Javier Pereira, Policy Officer for the European Network on Debt and Development, a network of 50 non-governmental organizations from 19 European countries. “Tax dodging is not easily defeated, so companies should be required to report additional information like sales volumes, assets and profits to put their payments into context. EU governments must now raise the bar by adopting a strong proposal, which should be at least in line with the recently implemented U.S. rules.”