Lux Leaks: Jean-Claude Juncker Facing Credibility Crisis After Latest Luxembourg Tax Avoidance Scandal
By Shane Croucher
November 6, 2014 16:00 GMT

Jean-Claude Juncker is President of the EU Commission and was Prime Minister of Luxembourg before this.(Reuters)
The ghost of Jean-Claude Juncker’s past has just returned to haunt him.
Luxembourg has been accused of arranging secret deals with hundreds of multi-national corporations to help them avoid tax in other countries by routing profits through shell companies based in the low-tax EU member state.
Among the more than 300 firms are Ikea, Pepsi and Deutsche Bank. Tax avoidance is legal, unlike evasion, though it is controversial to many and the EU has spearheaded efforts to close the loopholes used by big companies.
Juncker is president of the EU Commission, a role he won despite strong opposition from the UK. But before this he was prime minister of Luxembourg – which insists it is not a tax haven despite its ultra-low rates – for 18 years from 1995. He had also been the Grand Duchy’s finance minister for most of that time.
Therefore there are questions for Juncker to answer now a new Luxembourg tax avoidance scandal has burst open. What did he know? How directly involved was he in the decision making? Will he at any stage be involved in an investigation?
(Source: http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/lux-leaks-jean-claude-juncker-facing-credibility-crisis-after-latest-luxembourg-tax-avoidance-1473543)

LuxLeaks, l’imbarazzo di Juncker
L’Ue promette guerra all’evasione
di Ivo Caizzi, inviato a Bruxelles
(Fonte: http://www.corriere.it/esteri/14_novembre_08/luxleaks-l-imbarazzo-juncker-l-ue-promette-guerra-all-evasione-e1cebba6-6718-11e4-afa4-2e9916723e38.shtml)
Aumenta l’imbarazzo della Commissione europea, dopo il grande risalto dato da molti importanti quotidiani europei al coinvolgimento del suo presidente da appena una settimana, il lussemburghese europopolare Jean-Claude Juncker, nello scandalo LuxLeaks. Ma l’unica replica sui favoritismi fiscali concessi a centinaia di multinazionali e società straniere, quando era premier del Lussemburgo, è arrivata dal suo portavoce greco Margaritis Schinas, che ha negato il ridimensionamento del numero uno della Commissione in quella che nel gergo politico si definisce «lame duck» (anatra zoppa). «Juncker è completamente impegnato nel lavoro sul piano di investimenti da 300 miliardi – ha precisato Schinas – e nella preparazione del G20 di Brisbane», dove la settimana prossima si discuterà anche di lotta alla grande evasione fiscale.