by Andy Carling Jean-Claude Juncker faces two tests this week that will define the next five years and, many believe, the future of the European Union. The trials will take place in Strasbourg, where the whole Commission will decamp to support the new chief, cancelling a college meeting. Perhaps it is more than symbolic that the budget and investment plan will be unveiled in Strasbourg, seen by a majority of citizens and MEPs as the very symbol of Europe’s inefficiency and wastefulness, costing the taxpayers of Europe €114 million a year. As an example, last week, Commissioner Bulc cycled from the Commission headquarters to the European Parliament in Brussels. It cost nothing and took ten minutes and was carbon neutral. However, even the monumental cost of Strasbourg looks like loose change compared to the €300 billion plan Juncker is to unveil on Wednesday. Before then, there is a vote of no confidence motion to dismiss the European Commission, tabled by over 70 MEPs, largely representing the French Front National and UKIP. The confused motion criticises the EU for treating legal tax avoidance and illegal tax evasion the same. While saying “national tax sovereignty is a vital tool” they criticise Juncker and Luxembourg for making “aggressive” deals that disadvantaged their neighbours. Perhaps some sort of EU supervision could help the eurosceptics on this issue. The motion will be heavily defeated. Interestingly, the eurosceptics tried the same idea a decade ago, over Barroso’s sailing holidays with a Greek billionaire, Spiros Latsis, who later was awarded a €10 million state aid package. They argued that the holiday, provided freely had only a value of $20,000. However, a web search quickly revealed that the cost of hiring the yacht for the ten day break was a $1,000,000, although the Barroso critics didn’t seem interested in the revelation. After the Le Pen and Farage hors d'oeuvres, prayers will be said on Tuesday ahead of Wednesday’s main course. Here, the opposition to Juncker will be more subtle, not all from inside the chamber, not all from people who call themselves opponents. The plan will be using a mixture of public and private money to encourage investment, with the headline figure of €300 billion not being the amount of hard cash injected into the continent’s economic system, but the expected value of the investment the program is expected to raise. How much is actually raised, nobody knows, not even Pope Francis.
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