This statement was issued by the office of EU Commissioner Michel Barnier today:

“I welcome today's vote by the European Parliament on the new Accounting and Transparency Directives”.

“Financial reporting obligations have been modernised and costs reduced, in particular for SMEs. With the new rules on country by country reporting, we have created a framework where businesses and governments must disclose revenues from natural resources. This framework will also contribute to the fight against tax fraud and corruption”.

“But we must go further now and take measures on more transparency on tax for all large companies and groups — the taxes they pay, how much and to whom. I think it should be possible to introduce rules for the publication of the information on a country by country basis, similar to those approved for banks in CRD IV, or in the Commission's proposal on improving the transparency of certain large companies on non-financial reporting, adopted in April”.

The suggestion at the press conference was that this might be by the end of this year.....I will wait and see.