(20 November 2014) The President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker is implicated in the #Luxleaks scandal revealed by the excellent work of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalist on 5 November.
He was responsible, as both Prime Minister and Finance Minister, for authorising and approving tax deals with 340 companies. These have cost Member States billions of Euros of lost revenue. Juncker claims not only that the deals were legal but were the same as those agreed by others EU Member States like Ireland and the Netherlands.
This is still open for discussion as the Commission has indicated that the deals the Netherlands made with Google could be illegal state aid while the Belgian government is seeking damages from the HSBC bank for assisting rich individuals to avoid taxes.
Which government will dare to take on the Luxembourg government for doing the same? EPSU has drawn attention to the role of consultancies like PwC which brokered many of the #Luxleak deals. And yet the company is represented in the EU Tax good governance platform.
We argue that PwC representative should be removed from it.
Foxes should not guard the hen house.
These tax deals have robbed public service workers of a pay increase, patients of care and our economies of much needed investment.
Health workers took to the streets of Madrid on Sunday 16th, they will be on strike on the 21st in Portugal and in the UK on 24th November as governments say there is no funding for even the most modest of pay increases, for investment in hospitals or for staff. This is blatantly not true. The money is there. But corporations and rich individual are allowed to avoid and evade paying their taxes.
There are many things that need to change.
For starters the EU needs a proper blacklist of tax havens in and outside the EU. Companies and their subsidiaries that use them should be sanctioned. But in the very department in the UK that should be focusing on fighting corruption and tax fraud, that of Revenue and Customs, its senior civil servants are busy plotting against the union, PCS that seeks to fight against job cuts in tax administration. Fewer tax inspectors means that corporations and rich individuals get away with their fraud and evasion with such damaging consequences for our societies.
EPSU Executive Committee
We had our first Executive Committee since Congress on 4-5 November. Our President, Annelie Nordström, chaired the meeting which adopted our workplan, considered our finances and discussed cooperation with PSI.
The meeting also adopted solidarity statements with unions out on strike or involved in demonstrations like the firefighters in the UK, home and care workers in the Netherlands and health and other public service workers in Italy. I joined the demonstration in the Netherlands to express EPSU’s solidarity and Annelie did the same at the rally in Italy. The biggest demonstration was in Belgium where all local EPSU affiliates mobilised massively and 120.000 people filled the streets of Brussels to protest against cuts in public services, jobs and salaries. EPSU staff and EPSU Vice-President Françoise Geng joined the demonstration. And in all these events unions have been putting forward their alternatives and promoting the need for public investment.
An EU investment plan?
Commission President Juncker will shortly publish the promised EU investment plan. Will there be real money? Will it favour public-private partnerships where the risks are socialised but the profits go to shareholders and the rich? We are also expecting the publication of the Annual Growth Survey. What signal will Juncker give ? His priorities for 2015 published earlier this week had a strong emphasis on continuing simplification of regulation and the Refit agenda. Will the maternity leave directive be withdrawn despite the outcry of MEPs, EPSU, ETUC and the Women’s Lobby ?
In solidarity
Jan Willem Goudriaan
EPSU General Secretary
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