Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2014-11-12-Speech-3-052-000"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20141112.14.3-052-000"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spoken text |
"Mr President, it seems from Mr Juncker’s opening remarks that he is blaming everybody else and not himself and in a desperate effort to throw everybody off the scent he is calling for more EU tax harmonisation. Rubbish, I say. Let us get to the rub of it. The definition of hypocrisy in the
is the practice of claiming to have higher standards or more noble beliefs than is the case, and I do not think anyone in this Chamber could disagree with me today when I say that this perfectly sums up the position of the President of the European Commission here today.
When Mr Juncker was campaigning for the post, he stood on a platform of stamping out aggressive tax avoidance by multinational corporations across the European Union, yet it is now clear from recent revelations that he had not practised what he was preaching. Under his tenure, Luxembourg was a magical fairyland for multinational corporations where tax rates of as little as 1% were paid on profits. Mr Juncker, you said that this was within the rules, but equally I say it is morally bankrupt. When asked by one of my UKIP colleagues back in July how you could justify advocating tax standardisation across the European Union whilst overseeing a tax haven in Luxembourg, you simply dodged the question and now we know why.
Could this possibly be a case of history repeating itself, because Mr Juncker’s predecessor as Prime Minister of Luxembourg, Mr Jacques Santer, was forced to resign as President of the Commission under a cloud of corruption back in 1999? I suppose that, if you think about it in those terms, Mr Juncker’s appointment can be summed up by Albert Einstein’s theory of insanity, which is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.
I would like to finish by asking this Chamber why the people of Europe are increasingly sceptical about the European Union. Allow me to tell you with one simple sentence: it is because it is always a case of ‘do as I say and not as I do’, and therefore I believe, Mr Juncker, you have two options. One is to honourably resign or, two, at least stand down while an independent investigation takes place."@en1
|
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata |
"Oxford English Dictionary"1
|
| lpv:videoURI |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples