Jean-Claude Juncker is facing a vote in the European parliament to declare him unfit for his post as head of the EU executive because of his alleged role in turning Luxembourg into Europe's biggest tax haven during the two decades he dominated politics in the Grand Duchy.
Far-right and anti-EU MEPs got together on Tuesday to collect enough support for a motion of censure, which must be debated and voted on, possibly as soon as next week.
That there is a motion to censure, and sack, Jean-Claude Juncker is hardly a surprise. For years the man simply said 'no' to any attempt to beat tax crime (let's leave avoidance aside: his real crime was refusing to allow effective information exchange arrangements under the European Union Savings Tax Directive to beat tax evasion) and for that he is culpable in my book. But what amazes me is that despite this fact the EU's Socialists are not backing this move, which is coming from the far right instead.
It's time for them to walk their talk. Juncker is not an EU leader for the 21st century. His appointment was a mistake. He has to go. The Socialists need to say so.
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Sounds like another example of Socialist pusillanimity – they are probably taking their stand (or non-stand!) on the basis that they don’t want to vindicate David Cameron, who was in a minority of one, as I recall, over Juncker’s appointment.
Well, we can be damn sure Cameron’s opposition wasn’t founded on his disapproval of Juncker’s allegedly criminal, certainly culpable, behaviour, but rather on the fact that Juncker, while being a dodgy operator, wasn’t David Cameron’s favoured kind of dodgy operator!
Hi Richard, hope you are recovering well.
Sorry off message for this thread.
i was wondering about how you felt on the leaked memo from HMRC excom planning an attack on PCS?
http://www.pcs.org.uk/download.cfm?docid=6CA7A0B6-3B8C-402F-89E5729599427045
http://www.pcs.org.uk/en/news_and_events/pcs_comment/index.cfm/defend-pcs-in-hmrc-from-an-anti-union-plot
It is what I wouild expect from HMRC, which is now deeply politicised, as I have argued elsewhere on this blog today
Here’s how it goes:
1. Lots of people oppose the EU because they are anti-immigration.
2. Anti-immigration sentiment is universally characterised as right-wing (irrespective of whether someone who opposes immigration has right-wing views on other matters).
3. Therefore ‘the left’ positions itself as an opponent of the anti-EU people.
4. ‘The left’ goes ‘all in’ with this, and opposes all criticism of the EU – characterising it as ‘right wing’ – even when it’s nothing of the sort.
5. ‘The left’ therefore, by definition, must stand in support of the EU, it’s institutions, it’s policies, and it’s officers.
OK, that’s absurdly broad and there are many exceptions. You (Richard) have been happy to criticise the EU for as long as I’ve read your blog. Over the last few years (after, I guess, seeing the people of Southern Europe impoverished in order to preserve the vanity of ‘the project’ and various Northern European interests) more and more prominent voices on the left have questioned the orthodoxy. However, you and they still sit towards the fringes. The mainstream still seems too scared to be labelled ‘anti immigration’, or ‘little Englanders’ if it dares to criticise the EU – hoisted, as they are, by their own petard. It’s a cautionary tale.
Lee,
Is it still possible to be deeply and passionately pro the idea of European Union and loudly anti the way the b******s are implementing it?
James: Yes.