STRASBOURG
European Parliament MEPs will hold a debate Monday on a motion filed against European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker over the so-called LuxLeaks affair.
The motion of no confidence was filed and backed by 76 MEPs from Eurosceptic parties, including the UK Independence Party, the National Front in France and the Italian Five Star Movement.
It was submitted on Nov. 11 to the office of Martin Schulz, President of the European Parliament.
The censure motion comes after an investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists in early November, which accused hundreds of big-name corporations such as Pepsi, IKEA and FedEx of securing secret tax deals with Luxembourg.
The tax deals took place during Juncker's time as prime minister and finance minister of the country.
"The LuxLeaks scandal shows that Commission President Juncker has always acted in his political life to enrich his country behind the backs of its European partners, in defiance of the Union and Community spirit he is supposed to represent,’’ Marco Zanni said.
Zanni is an MEP in the European Parliament from the Five Star Movement, an Italian Eurosceptic party.
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 the embattled President.
Juncker, 59, has defended his actions during his time as Prime Minister of Luxembourg, saying: "everything was 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 added.
Juncker told reporters at the European Commission on Nov. 12 that the differences in tax regulations from one state to another allowed companies to move their operations to nations with preferable tax laws.
Juncker was the former Prime Minister of Luxembourg from 1995 to 2013 and is a member of the center-right Christian Social People’s Party.
He was elected in July to replace former Portuguese Prime Minister, Jose Manual Barroso, as European Commission President.
He took office on Oct. 22 for a five-year term.
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