#European photopress agency plus#

However, the head of Transparency International’s Brussels office, Carl Dolan, thinks it does make sense for the EU to take the lead in figting this kind of tax evasion. And if no EU country does so, then some other country outside the EU will.

#European photopress agency plus#

Some argue, though, that there is no point in trying to solve this matter on EU level.įrank Engel, Luxembourgish conservative and EU parliamentarian, told Euranet Plus that if Luxembourg doesn’t provide opportunities to companies like the ones revealed, then the Netherlands or Ireland will do so. Juncker concluded that the controversial tax deals, in Luxembourg as well as in other EU member states, were the result of a lack of tax harmonisation in the EU and he assured that the Commission will act to deal with tax avoidance in Europe.įor example, Pierre Moscovici, EU commissioner responsible for taxation, will be in charge of the proposal of a new directive which would introduce the automatic exchange of tax rulings information between EU member states. Now he will have to apply this principle to himself… And I’m sure he will be very keen to show that he is capable to deal with this issue”, said Goulard. I cannot resist to remind you Jean Claude Juncker’s principle when he composed his team of Commissioners: poachers make the best gamekeepers.

Finally on Wednesday, November 12, he appeared in the Brussels limelight pleading for his and his country’s innocence. The President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, spent almost one week avoiding the questions from the press and other critics following the revelations that his home country Luxembourg had made secret agreements with hundreds of big corporations helping them minimise their tax payments when he was acting prime minister of Luxembourg. Also this week, the Parliament’s Ebola rapporteur called for more coordination between member states, tensions rose in Eastern Ukraine, the European Court of Justice presented a sensitive ruling and the EU wrote history landing on a comet.

It didn’t persuade all and critics still call for Juncker to step down. He did, however, admit that there has probably been an excess of fiscal engineering in Luxembourg and he assured that the Commission will act to stop tax avoidance. This mosaic comprises four individual NAVCAM images taken from 31.8 km from the centre of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on November 4, 2014Īfter avoiding questions about the Luxleaks tax evasion scandal, EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, finally spoke up and defended himself and his country, arguing no laws had been breached.