ROBERT HARDMAN: Why EU's hypocrite-in-chief is prime example of hubris that could tear it apart

He's the Eurosceptic present that simply retains on giving. Certainly, he's probably the best weapon on the Brexiteers' disposal — extra so even than Nigel Farage or Boris Johnson, or these bonkers EU laws on the right form of bananas.

However for the way for much longer?

As a result of time is now certainly operating out for European Fee president Jean-Claude Juncker following the newest proof of his rank hypocrisy — to not point out his pivotal position in a monumental tax dodge.

As many have argued since final summer time's EU referendum, if the member states of the European Union had not appointed Mr Juncker to run the European Fee in 2014, Brexit may very nicely not have occurred.

A much less smug, much less abrasive, much less fanatical Euro-federalist may nicely have shaved an important couple of proportion factors off the ultimate 52:48 consequence.

Fortuitously for the Go away camp, the finger-wagging former prime minister of Luxembourg simply saved on riling the British public proper as much as polling day.

European Fee president Jean-Claude Juncker (pictured)  following the newest proof of his rank hypocrisy — to not point out his pivotal position in a monumental tax dodge

Menace

Certainly, he was at it once more simply the opposite day when he warned different member states to not comply with the silly Brits by holding an in/out EU referendum. 'It's not smart to organise this type of debate,' he stated.

'Not solely as a result of I may be involved in regards to the closing consequence however as a result of it will pile extra controversy on to the large quantity [of crises] already current on the coronary heart of the EU.'

This week, nonetheless, a recent collection of leaked paperwork present the extraordinary extent to which Mr Juncker has spent years blocking EU makes an attempt to crack down on the predatory tax loopholes constructed in his native Luxembourg for the good thing about worldwide company giants akin to Amazon.

The identical paperwork go on to indicate how he has additionally vetoed any public disclosure of those discussions.

So, right here we're firstly of a yr wherein the EU faces the gravest existential menace in its historical past from a collection of nationwide elections in France, the Netherlands, Germany and Italy. And regardless of crystal-clear calls for for better EU transparency and accountability, the person in command of the EU equipment has been rumbled because the architect of an enormous tax avoidance cover-up.

As but, we've not heard a squeak from Mr Juncker. Not that we must always essentially imagine what he may deign to share with us. That is the person who, whereas dealing with the 2011 eurozone disaster, blithely declared: 'When it turns into severe, it's important to lie.'

Effectively it is definitely wanting severe now.

The newest scandal follows the leak of categorised paperwork involving a secretive EU committee set as much as set up a code of conduct on tax insurance policies. The concept was to stop 'dangerous competitors' between member states.

For the reason that committee was created in 1998, when Mr Juncker was each prime minister and finance minister in his native grand duchy, the committee has made repeated makes an attempt to toughen regulation.

These have included proposals for investigations of personal company tax offers with massive worldwide companies. At each stage, these plans have been blocked by Luxembourg due to a rule requiring unanimity on all of the committee's selections.

Exasperated by this stalemate, quite a few nations together with Germany and Sweden then argued in favour of a majority vote. 'Nein,' stated Luxembourg and vetoed that, too.

So a rustic with zero.1 per cent of the EU inhabitants (assume Northamptonshire with fewer individuals), has been irritating severe reform of offshore tax avoidance for years.

Then, when it was proposed that the committee's deliberations may be made public, that additionally obtained a giant fats thumbs down from Mr Juncker and his compatriots.

Given all of the bile which Mr Juncker has directed through the years on the British for being 'dangerous' Europeans, and for obstructing the good European dream, we now discover that he has been throwing spanners within the works and getting away with it for years.

There should now certainly be severe doubts about this man's potential to stay on the helm of the world's most bloated paperwork (one wherein 10,000 individuals earn greater than the British prime minister).

It was in 2014 that the primary revelations surfaced about Mr Juncker's involvement in cosy Luxembourg tax offers through the 18 years he spent as PM, earlier than being compelled out in a telephone tapping scandal.

The so-called 'LuxLeaks' episode revealed the extent to which corporations akin to Fiat and McDonald's had been having fun with probably unlawful preparations with Luxembourg on his watch — offers which definitely assist to elucidate why it is among the world's richest nations.

A number of EU investigations have since been commissioned, and Fiat has been ordered to repay tens of tens of millions of euros in unpaid tax, whereas the McDonald's case is ongoing. Mr Juncker has supported the EU's competitors commissioner Margrethe Vestager in pursuing these issues.

Little question Mr Juncker had hoped all these pesky leaks had gone away. As an alternative, the brand new disclosures amplify the conceitedness of a person who has repeatedly voiced his contempt for the democratic course of.

As many have argued since final summer time's EU referendum, if the member states of the European Union had not appointed Mr Juncker to run the European Fee in 2014, Brexit may not have occurred

'I'm for secret, darkish debates,' he stated in 2011. He additionally stated: 'Everyone knows what to do. We simply do not know the way to get re-elected after we have achieved it.'

Contempt

His perspective in the direction of the inconvenient simpletons the remainder of us name 'voters', might be greatest summed up in his half-jokey, half-menacing prognosis forward of the 2005 French referendum on a proposed European Structure: 'If it is a Sure, we are going to say: 'On we go.' And if it is a No, we are going to say: 'We proceed.' '

Little question there can be some in Brussels who will attempt to clarify away the newest leaks as rabble-rousing by ghastly Eurosceptic British newspapers such because the Mail.

Truly, the newest Luxembourg leaks have come by way of German radio, the Left-wing Guardian newspaper and the Worldwide Consortium of Investigative Journalists — hardly a cabal of scheming Brexiteers. Certainly, it's more and more exhausting to search out anybody with optimistic issues to say in regards to the 62-year-old uber-bureaucrat, who makes no secret of his personal contempt for the UK.

Throughout Mr Juncker's quest to grow to be president of the Fee, even that arch-Europhile Lord Mandelson could not give you something extra enthusiastic than: 'He could or is probably not the nightmare candidate.'

Maybe now, a few of Mr Juncker's senior colleagues will come to their senses and realise what a legal responsibility they've within the man nonetheless operating the Fee. Then once more, maybe not.

We'd like solely take a look at the huge new palace which the EU grandees have simply unveiled in Brussels. Known as Europa — or the 'House Egg' — it's superbly emblematic of the ivory-towered otherworldliness of the EU elite.

Lies

Initially commissioned for £210 million in 2004, it has lastly been completed 4 years late and £80 million over price range.

Multi-coloured flooring and ceilings seem like a paint chart however are apparently the work of a Belgian artist-cum-essayist known as Georges Meurant, who solely paints in squares.

That is alleged to be the brand new convention centre for each the European Council and the Council of the European Union, with the bowels earmarked for the media and the highest flooring fitted out as a really grand non-public eating room. Places of work, convention rooms and eating places fill the house in between.

Certainly, the constructing has 25 per cent more room for consuming and consuming (5,800 sq. metres) than for precise conferences (four,600 sq. metres), however then that ought to come as no shock to those that have spent any time in Brussels, as I did lately.

Mr Juncker will surely approve. He's well-known for his love of a conventional European working lunch; one native paper chronicled his heroic consumption of a Campari, three glasses of wine and three Sambucas in simply two hours. It is one in all his extra endearing traits.

2017 goes to be a really severe yr for the EU, one wherein voters will determine on its very survival. And but it continues to be dominated by a pantomime villain who has blamed Britain's Brexit vote on 'lies and so many half-truths' — when, by his personal admission, his personal profession has been suffering from the exact same.

 

Tweet