The information of the week felt like a bomb : Jean-Claude Juncker, Luxemburg former prime minister and current President of the European Commission is accused of having slowed down secretly various anti-tax evasions actions in the EU.
According to « the Guardian », while he was still at the head of the Grand Duchy, Mr Juncker would have put his vet repeatedly on initiatives of the « Code of conduct » created in 1997 which had for objective to set up measures of anti-tax evasion across the EU. Indeed, this « code of conduct » established political commitment of member states to eradicate all the harmful fiscal measures in the European countries and modify the laws and the insidious practices. To insure this « Code of conduct » on the ground, a workgroup of experts nammed « Primarolo » has been created. According to the German diplomats who made public the charges involving Mr Juncker, it is within this group that the current President would have worked behind the scene to influence decisions.
Still in the storm of LuxLeaks revelations a few months ago, the President of the European Commission is involved again in a story which is discrediting the European Union image. However, if this affair is attested, the trust in our institutions will very probably take a blow. According to Thomas Coutrot, economist and co-chairman of the association ATTAC, it is obvious that Mr Juncker should rather try to block these measures because Luxembourg is one of the main moving p multinationals in the world. At time, when he was Prime Minister of Luxembourg from 1993 till 2013 and than Minister of Finance, he should rather try to eradicate the new initiatives to keep his electoral support and especially to insure the leadership of his country in terms of low multinationals taxes.
In response to these accusations, the Juncker committee indicated that the President made a point of honor to fight against tax evasion and insure transparency of tax systems between European countries. According to Margaritis Schinas, spokesman of the executive of the EU, German diplomats will not manage to discredit the objectives settled bu the EU. However, according to the statement of Sven Giegold, the Green party’s deputy to the European Parliament, implementations of European measures against taxes evasion are deeply light and empty of contents. Indeed, he asserted that « Jean-Claude Juncker proposed few new measures but they are very shy. When we look closer at it, we notice that these measures were already partially planned in the international treaties… « .
Victoria Bonaert
En savoir plus:
-http://www.lalibre.be/actu/international/le-passe-encombrant-de-jean-claude-juncker-586a9b71cd70717f88e55c47
-http://www.lalibre.be/economie/libre-entreprise/l-adoption-du-paquet-fiscal-51b87ebee4b0de6db9a8da9e
-http://info.arte.tv/fr/evasion-fiscale-juncker-ce-loup-dans-la-bergerie
-https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/jan/01/jean-claude-juncker-blocked-eu-curbs-on-tax-avoidance-cables-show
