8 Amendments of Maria HEUBUCH related to 2017/2028(INI)
Amendment 10 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1 a. Highlights that surveys show that corruption is widespread in land administration and is increasingly tainting all phases of land deals, resulting in a wide range of adverse human rights impacts, ranging from forced displacement of communities without adequate compensation to the killing of land defenders[1]; furthermore, notes with concern that human rights violations risk to intensify in a context of rising demand for food, fuel and commodities and increasing large-scale land investments in developing countries; [1] Olivier De Schutter, « Tainted Lands. Corruption in Large-Scale Land Deals », in International Corporate Accountability Roundtable & Global Witness ( November 2016). https://www.globalwitness.org/en/campaig ns/land-deals/tainted-lands-corruption- large-scale-land-deals/
Amendment 11 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 b (new)
Paragraph 1 b (new)
1 b. Underlines that corruption enables land grabbing in a number of ways most notably when investors pay bribes to public officials in exchange for favorable land leases or acquisitions without the consent of the people who live on it, or when investors rely on weak rule of law or corrupt remedial schemes to deny land users' access to remedies; urges once more the investing companies to seek the free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) of all affected communities, including indigenous peoples and to take human rights due diligence measures, including through the setting-up of a strong whistleblower protection mechanism, to ensure that their subsidiaries and business partners do not resort to corruption;
Amendment 12 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 c (new)
Paragraph 1 c (new)
1 c. Recalls that the financial sector has a key role to play in preventing corrupt practices that facilitates land grabbing in particular; reiterates that banks and financial institutions should undertake "customer due diligence" to combat money laundering linked to corruption and ensure that investors they support undertake effectively human rights due diligence; calls on the EU and its Member States to require disclosure of details about companies' land acquisitions in third countries and to upgrade its support to developing countries to ensure effective implementation of the Voluntary Guidelines on Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests (VGGT) as a means to address corruption in land deals;
Amendment 15 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Notes that trade deals, along with bindingmandatory and enforceable human rights clauses ensuring that private companies respect human rights and the highest social and environmental standards, are essential to fight corruption;
Amendment 19 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3 a. Notes with concern that the most relevant international conventions such as the UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) and initiatives aiming to fight corruption and illicit financial flows fail to deliver concrete results at their implementation stage; recalls that the development of an EU external anti- corruption strategy is essential to combat corruption and financial crime effectively;
Amendment 23 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Calls on the EU to enhance the transparency and accountability of its Official Development Assistance in order to comply effectively with the standards set out in the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) and with internationally agreed development effectiveness principles; calls equally on the EU to develop a strong holistic risk management system to prevent development aid from contributing to corruption in recipient countries i.e. by linking budget support to clear anti-corruption objectives; to this end, stresses the need to set up robust mechanisms to monitor its implementation;
Amendment 24 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4 a. In order to eradicate high level corruption, calls on the Commission, in the context of budget support, to pay attention to the transparency in operations involving privatization and deals of public assets, notably land, and to participate in OECD support programmes for developing countries in corporate governance of state owned enterprises;
Amendment 26 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. URecalls that corruption is closely related to activities such as money laundering, tax evasion, illicit trade; in this light, stresses that transparency should be the cornerstone of all anti- corruption strategies; in particular, underlines the importance of tackling tax fraud and tax avoidance, which undermine domestic resources mobilisation for social policies, by way of effective measures such as compulsory country-by- country reporting for multinationals and disclosure of beneficial ownership of companies, trusts or holdings;