BRUSSELS
Eurosceptic members of the European Parliament have filed a motion to oust the European Commisson under the leadership of Jean-Claude Juncker.
The motion, backed by 76 MEPs from eurosceptic parties including the UK Independence Party, the National Front in France and the Italian Five Star Movement, was submitted on Tuesday to the office of Martin Schulz, President of the European Parliament. A vote will be held on the motion in Strasbourg next week.
However, the no-confidence vote is unlikely to succeed, as the European People's Party and the Social Democrats - who hold a majority of seats in the European Parliament – back Juncker.
The no-confidence vote against the Juncker Commission comes after an investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists in early November, which accused hundreds of big-name corporations like Pepsi, IKEA and FedEx of securing secret tax deals with Luxembourg at the time when Juncker was prime minister and finance minister of the country. .
“The LuxLeaks scandal shows that Commission President Juncker in his political life has always acted to enrich his country behind the backs of its European partners, in defiance of the Union and the Community spirit he is supposed to represent,’’ said Marco Zanni, a member of the European Parliament from the Italian Eurosceptic 5 Star Movement in a press release on Tuesday.
Juncker has defended his actions during his time as Prime Minister of Luxembourg, and said: ''everything has been in compliance with national legislation and the international rules that apply in this matter."
''The national rules differ from Member State to Member State; sometimes the results of that is a tax rate not fully in compliance with the concept of fiscal fairness," he said.
Juncker told reporters at the European Commission on Nov.12 that the differences in tax regulation from one state to another allowed companies to move their operations to nations with preferable tax rules.
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