Juncker pushes tax crackdown after new LuxLeaks row
Jean-Claude Juncker - Singing of 'solemn undertaking'
(BRUSSELS) - EU Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker vowed Wednesday to push forward a tax avoidance crackdown, after new "LuxLeaks" revelations about companies getting bumper deals when he was Luxembourg prime minister.
Juncker has been under the spotlight since he took office at the start of November when the first set of documents was revealed by a journalistic investigation and a new set released late Tuesday showed Disney and other firms also benefitted.
"This is not a coincidence. The first wave came when I started and the second is launched when I am being sworn in before the court, which for me is an important event," Juncker told journalists as he arrived at the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg for the swearing-in of the new European Commission.
"I told the European Parliament (last month) that for tax harmonisation, the coordination and bringing together of tax policies is an absolute necessity."
"I will do it."
In an interview published earlier Wednesday, Juncker said he had been "weakened" by the scandal but repeated his insistence that he was not personally involved in the deals for major corporations.
The latest LuxLeaks papers, unveiled simultaneously in several newspapers worldwide, show that US entertainment giant Disney paid a 0.28 percent tax rate.
Internet calling business Skype, owned by Microsoft, and Koch Industries, owned by the powerful US conservative political donors the Koch brothers, also reportedly benefitted.