It is clear that Juncker has taken personal charge of responding to the Luxembourg Leaks, the 28,000 documents that exposed the comfortable relations between the authorities and transnational companies wanting to diminish their tax burden. The strategy of his spokesman only made things worse and provoked calls for the new Commission President to step down. In the previous days, Juncker’s spokesman said that Juncker would appear if a majority of MEPs went through the procedures before Juncker would consider appearing before MEPs. This appeared to contradict assurances Juncker had given MEPs. Juncker made a surprise visit to the European Commission’s midday briefing for journalists and then appeared in the European Parliament plenary, where he gave a statement. “I am not speaking in my role as former PM but as commissioner,” he began. “The heart of the problem is tax rulings,” he added. He made the same defence, that the rulings were legal and approved by the commission at the time. “Our mission in the commission is to do everything we can to see we have the same tax receipts and common criteria.” He said that a directive was being prepared on mandatory exchange of information on tax deals, adding, “We will do everything we can to get the Council to adopt this directive. He added, “We will ensure we have an automatic exchange of information on tax rulings,” and vowed to look for more support at the G20. Speaking for the centre-right European Peoples’ Party (EPP), Manfred Weber said, “We’re not discussing a new topic that came out of the blue,” adding that that many other nations have the same issues. He added that “it took decades for member states to deliver the goods” – on tax evasion. Weber said transparency was important and pledged his support for the commission head. For the centre-left, Socialists and Democrats (S&D) leader, Giovanni Pittella was conciliatory, saying that Juncker’s appearance was “a sensitive and responsible thing” and his group appreciated it. Declining to make political pointscoring, Pittella agreed that many nations have the problem and that pitting nations against each other had led to widespread “indignation against multinationals and states that are complicit.” Pittella added, “Some states like Greece are being put through the mill in austerity when many companies are avoiding the taxes.” Calling for action, Pittella said, “They’re not even breaking the law when they don’t even pay their taxes, let’s change the law!” He said the commission needs to come up with clear definition of tax havens and there was an important factor, decrying that many schemes were legal, he added that “If you’re caught, you’ve got to pay.” To Juncker, Pittella gave his support, “He has come and shown he is truly keen to reform this sector,” he said. A passionate Guy Verhofstadt for the liberals asked, “Where’s Farage, he’s a specialist on offshore accounts!” Criticising those advocating a smaller Europe, Verhofstadt added, “This is a topic where we need more Europe? How do you avoid these practices if not on the European level?” Asking for a speedy inquiry, the liberal head said, “There is a shadow hanging over the commission and we have to take it away as fast as possible.” After a tough week, Juncker faced his critics, many of whom found they were in agreement with the commission chief.
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