Gina Miller: The woman behind the Brexit case

Yahoo – AFP, Alice Ritchie, January 24, 2017

Gina Miller, co-founder of investment fund SCM Private (C), is a key plaintiff in a
case to decide whether or not parliamentary approval is needed before the
government can begin Brexit negotiations, outside the Supreme Court in central
London on January 24, 2017. (AFP Photo/Isabel INFANTES)

London (AFP) - The Supreme Court ruling Tuesday that parliament must approve the start of Brexit is in many ways a victory for one woman, Gina Miller, who has endured death threats and racial abuse for bringing the case.

Addressing journalists outside court after the judgment, the 51-year-old businesswoman thanked her supporters for holding fast in the face of "extraordinary and unwarranted criticism".

"In Britain, we are lucky -- we are fortunate to have the ability to voice legitimate concerns and views as part of a shared society," she said.

"I have therefore been shocked at the levels of personal abuse that I have received from many quarters over the last seven months for simply bringing and asking a legitimate question.

"I sincerely hope that going forward people who stand in positions of power and profile are much quicker in condemning those who cross the lines of common decency and mutual respect."

Several people launched legal challenges against the government after last June's shock referendum vote to leave the European Union, arguing that the outcome was only "advisory" and needed further legislation.

But Miller became the lead claimant with her case that ministers could not start the process without parliament's approval.

In doing so, she became a target for nationalists who claimed it was intended to stop Brexit.

She has been pilloried in the media, sent hate mail and death threats that forced her to hire bodyguards.

At weekends, she now stays close to home with her husband and three children.

"There is no doubt that Brexit is the most divisive issue of a generation, but this case was about the legal process, not politics," Miller said Tuesday.

She said the ruling went "to the very heart of our constitution", confirming that "only parliament can grant rights to the British people and only parliament can take them away".

Now the head of an investment fund in London, Miller grew up in British Guiana, now Guyana, the daughter of the attorney general.

She had previously launched a campaign to bring more transparency to financial investments, and has a strong sense of social justice.

The government is now expected to bring forward emergency legislation authorising it to trigger Article 50, the EU mechanism starting Brexit negotiations, by the end of March.

Miller said Tuesday that it was right MPs help "select the best course in the forthcoming Brexit negotiations, negotiations that will frame our place in the world and all our destinies to come".

Related Article:

May stalled as Brexit goes to UK parliament

German opposition leader calls for security union with Russia, dissolution of NATO

The parliamentary leader of Germany's largest opposition party has urged the dissolution of the NATO alliance. Her remarks come after US president-elect Donald Trump described it as "obsolete."

Deutsche Welle, 17 January 2017

  

German opposition leader Sahra Wagenknecht on Tuesday added her voice to calls to dissolve the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in the wake of US President-elect Donald Trump's controversial remarks concerning the military alliance

"NATO must be dissolved and replaced by a collective security system including Russia," Wagenknecht told Germany's "Funke" media group.

Wagenknecht, who leads the opposition Left Party in parliament, added that comments made by the future US president "mercilessly reveal the mistakes and failures of the [German] federal government."

'Very unfair'

In an interview published by German tabloid "Bild," Trump described NATO as an "obsolete" organization.

"I said a long time ago that NATO had problems. Number one it was obsolete, because it was designed many, many years ago," he said.

"We're supposed to protect countries. But a lot of these countries aren't paying what they're supposed to be paying, which I think is very unfair to the United States," Trump added.

Germany's Left Party has previously called for warmer ties with Russia and scrapping the security alliance, measures which appear to be policy concerns for the incoming US administration.

The Left Party is Germany's largest opposition group in parliament, and holds seats in several state legislatures.

Netherlands 'will block UK-EU deal without tax avoidance measures'

Trade agreement would have to include strict rules to prevent Britain becoming offshore haven, Dutch deputy PM says

The Dutch deputy prime minister, Lodewijk Asscher. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

The Guardian – Observer, Daniel Boffey in Brussels, Saturday 14 January 2017

The Netherlands will block any EU trade deal with the UK unless it signs up to tough tax avoidance regulations preventing it from becoming an attractive offshore haven for multinationals and the rich, the deputy prime minister of the country has said.

Lodewijk Asscher, who was recently elected leader of the Dutch Labour party (PvdA), which is currently a partner in the ruling coalition government, has written to socialist leaders across the continent stipulating his party’s red lines in coming talks.

On Sunday, Theresa May suggested the UK would leave the single market when it leaves the EU in 2019, but seek to agree a trade deal with the remaining EU member states on triggering article 50 negotiations on the terms of Britain’s exit.

The vision of a low-tax Britain that enforces fewer regulations in terms of workers’ rights on businesses has been a motivating force for a number of high profile Brexit supporters.

In a letter seen by the Guardian, however, Asscher writes that it is in the interests of both the UK and the remaining 27 EU member states that May’s government is prevented from creating a low-tax neoliberal outpost.

In a sign of the complexity of the trade negotiations to come, he writes: “If you and I pay taxes, so should the large enterprises. Let’s fight the race to the bottom for profits taxation together which threatens to come into existence if it is up to the Conservative UK government.

“This will affect all Europeans, as it deteriorates our support for our social security system and leaves ordinary people to bear the costs. This is why I propose to come to a new trade agreement with Great Britain, but only if we can agree firmly upon tackling tax avoidance and stopping the fiscal race to the bottom.”

Asscher was elected as the Dutch Labour party leader in December. He has been deputy prime minister in the country’s “purple coalition” government with the centre-right People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy, led since 2012 by the Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte.

During that period, the Labour party’s polling under the leadership of Diederik Samsom plummeted from 25% to as little as 10% of the vote, with its working-class voter base splintering to Geert Wilders’s anti-immigrant Party for Freedom (PVV), or the hard-left.

When he was elected to replace Samsom ahead of a general election in the Netherlands in March, Asscher vowed to listen and act on the concerns of those who had left his party in droves.

In his letter to all of the leaders of the left-of-centre grouping in the European parliament, known as the European Socialists, Asscher also calls for parties of the left to respond to the rise of xenophobic politics, which he claims is gaining the upper hand, with a form of “progressive patriotism”.

He calls on socialist parties to reject any suspicion of those who voice patriotic sentiments and vows to use the Brexit negotiations to seek reform of the EU’s current rules around freedom of movement.

His call comes after the British Labour party leader, Jeremy Corbyn, walked into a row about his party’s policy on the contentious issue earlier in the week. Corbyn appeared to suggest that he would accept the current immigration arrangements in return for the UK retaining access to the single market.

Corbyn’s comments came hours before a speech on Tuesday in which he said he was was not wedded to the continued retention of the principle of freedom of movement across Britain and the rest of the EU.

Asscher writes, however, that radical reform of the current EU rules on immigration are needed. “Wage-lowering labour migration in Europe nowadays leads to unequal competition between workers,” he writes.

“Migration leads to tension within and between communities. And this lack of control cannot be diminished by making forced efforts to emphasise a European identity. For this we need unity in diversity. Progressive patriotism is the required antidote not only against the nationalist and xenophobic politics, but also as an alternative for the politics that ridicules or even throws suspicion on the longing for community or national identity.”

In his letter to socialist leaders, Asscher specifies reform of the EU’s posted-workers directive, which allows companies to pay foreign workers less than locals who benefit from collective bargaining, as a priority. Corbyn has also repeatedly said that this is the goal of the British Labour party.

Asscher also suggests a broader rethink of the left’s attitude to immigration. “For too many people, the European Union has become the symbol of social injustice, which fades its enormous achievement of peace and cooperation into the background, he writes. “Is it strange that people are fed up with the EU? I believe not.

“This is why we need new, fair and progressive rules of the game. And those can only be set when we collaborate. The forthcoming Brexit negotiations provide us with a unique opportunity to set those new rules.” 

A spokesman for Asscher said Corbyn had been “very positive” when he received the letter.

In a statement to The Guardian, Asscher said: “Let’s not give populists a monopoly on the notion of national pride. If we discuss migration only in terms of economics, labour migration within the EU for example, or in terms of humanitarian obligation [the refugee crisis], we run the risk of diminishing tolerance instead of increasing it.

“Newcomers’ ticket to our society? The adoption of our shared values, ranging from freedom of speech and religion to equal treatment of men and women and respecting the rights of the LGBT community.

“We need to show that our societies are based on the principle of give and take: You can only be part of a society when you participate in it. Everyone must accept the basic premise that if you want to be accepted, you have to accept others.”

Labour’s shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, said: “After six wasted years of the Tories opposing every Labour proposal to clamp down on tax avoidance, this reveals what our European neighbours believe is the main priority for Theresa May’s government. It also gives an insight into what a Tory Brexit would truly look like – a tax haven off the coast of Europe.”

Merkel warns 'eternal' US-EU ties not guaranteed

Yahoo – AFP, Danny Kemp, January 12, 2017

Luxembourg's Prime minister Xavier Bettel (C) and Deputy Prime Minister Etienne
 Schneider welcome German Chancellor Angela Merkel (R) during a visit in
Luxembourg on January 12, 2017 (AFP Photo/JOHN THYS)

Brussels (AFP) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned the EU Thursday it should not rely on "eternal" US support, as concern grows in Europe about Donald Trump's commitment to transatlantic ties.

Merkel, who faced a small protest by far-right supporters on a visit to Belgium, also told the European Union it must keep a united front in negotiations with Britain over its exit from the bloc.

"From the point of view of some of our traditional partners -- and I am thinking here as well about the transatlantic relations -- there is no eternal guarantee for a close cooperation with us Europeans," Merkel told an audience as she received an honorary university doctorate in Brussels.

Merkel said that "Europe is facing the biggest challenges for decades" with conflicts on its borders like that in Ukraine, but that it would be "naive always to rely on others who would solve the problems in our neigbourhood."

The German leader said Brexit in particular made it important to increase solidarity in the rest of the EU, which has been discussing ways of boosting defence cooperation and other issues in the wake of Britain's shock vote to leave.

"We should see this decision as an incentive to work together (for the goal), to hold Europe together now more than ever, to improve it further and to bring the citizens closer together again," she said.

Around 50 protesters waving placards responded to a call by the Flemish far-right movement Voorpost to protest against Merkel's immigration policies, AFP journalists said.

Police kept them back from the ceremony where she received a joint doctorate from the prestigious Ghent and Louvain universities.

Merkel, who is set to seek re-election later this year, has faced criticism in Europe over her open-door policy for Syrian refugees which critics say encouraged a flood of migrants to Europe.

Brexit 'can't divide' EU

The migration crisis is one of a series of problems facing the EU, along with the spectre of Brexit, but Merkel said the remaining 27 countries must stand strong.

"We are absolutely in agreement that we cannot let ourselves be divided," Merkel told a news conference after talks with Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel before her visit to Belgium.

"The 27 (member states) must act together in the negotiations, but first we await the answer about how Britain wants to design its exit."

Britons voted to leave the EU in a referendum in June last year, but the rest of the bloc has refused to hold any negotiations on their future relationship until Britain formally triggers its departure.

EU nations have warned Britain cannot expect to keep all the benefits of membership of the single market while being able to limit the bloc's signature freedom of movement for people.

On Wednesday, Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, whose country has just taken over the EU's rotating six-month presidency, rejected suggestions that Britain may be able to play on divisions to extract concessions.

"I have rarely been at a discussion on any other subject where the 27 member states have basically the same position," he said.

"WILD CARDS OF THE PLANET" – (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)

Kryon.com, November 19, 2016

This live channelling was given in Wilmington, North Carolina

Lee Carroll

To help the reader, this channelling has been revisited [by Lee and Kryon] to provide even clearer understanding. Sometime information is even added or condensed. Often what happens live has implied energy within it, which carries a kind of communication that the printed page does not. So enjoy this enhanced message given in Wilmington, NC.

Greetings, dear ones, I am Kryon of Magnetic Service.

Today I want to talk about wild cards. I wish to help explain what or who they’ve been over time, but in order for this explanation to be understood and accepted and beautiful to your soul, you’re going to have to do some pretending.

Adjusting Your Attitude

If you were a scientist coming from another planet to observe Human history, you would need to do it without emotion or bias. I can tell the story about wild cards, both for your grandfathers and for you, but there is often emotion and bias involved. Because of this, I will say one thing, and you may hear another. Dear ones, it can’t be that way for you to understand this message.

Warning: What comes next has to be disengaged from what you think you know, or from the emotions of who you think you are, what you think has happened, or even from what you feel is historical. Remember, in his pretending scenario, you’re aliens coming from another planet to learn what has happened. You’re pretending so you will disengage. Pretend history will be told to you about a race you’re not part of. This is so you will have no attachment to anything as you listen. This is the only way you will understand this lesson today. It is the only way you will begin to understand the beauty of a spiritual system that pushes you when you need to be pushed.

Wild Cards Examined

Wild card, as used in spiritual language, is a term that is difficult to define. Wild cards can be events, they can be inventions, they can involve one Human or a few. They can be one of many things or many of one thing, but they follow a timeline that you can look at. We want to talk about some of the wild cards that you’ve had in the past, and some attributes of their occurrence that you might not have thought of.

The basic attribute of any kind of wild card is that it’s a surprise event. It’s often shocking, sometimes revealing, but always a surprise. We’re also going to do some of the numerology as we go, and also take a look at the energies that help define what the energy is around specific wild cards.

Numerology is an ancient system that helps define an energy around something. For instance, an event may seem to be one thing, but the numerology will tell a story around it that may be more explanatory. When you see what we will call synchronized numerology – the same numbers repeated around a wild card – it’s very telling, for there are no accidents.

Dear Kryon, you might ask, “Does spirit create wild cards for the planet?” Answer: No, you do. Your consciousness at a certain point in time gives an allowance for a wild card. Sprit is ready to enhance some wild card scenarios and not others. But the energy and consciousness of humanity allows for their occurrence.

A wild card can be a person, an invention, a thing, an event, a new system or a new paradigm that changes the planet. It is unexpected, sometimes startling and often dramatic in its influence. If it’s an invention, it has to be outside of the purview of what would normally have occurred through the evolution of science or the timing of expected scientific evolution. It is often a paradigm shifter, and it’s usually from one person. When you see that, you will know there it’s a wild card. It isn’t always an individual invention, and sometimes it’s collective. But, dear one, you can tell because every single wild card takes everybody by surprise.

Wild Cards in History

You’ve had a number of them, and I’ll list a few so you get the idea. You’ll also get to see a system of singularity that comes to inventors. You’ll see this as I go.

Tesla was a wild card. His ideas were unexpected, controversial and advanced to a degree that even to this day those in electronic engineering shake their heads. They will take a look at what he invented and will comment, “How is it possible for any one person to have seen that? If you study alternating current, it’s a conundrum. Phase relationships of alternating current are brilliant beyond brilliant.” This was Tesla.

However, what you know about him is only what he brought to you. Now, a brilliant mind like that would have other things, don’t you think? Indeed, he did, so you might ask, “Well, where are those other things?” The answer is that those other things were stopped cold – all of them. He only was able to promote the one thing that you needed for the planet. The brilliance of his mind had many other profound ideas, but he was unable to proceed. He saw ways to alter mass in his workshops, but couldn’t. He was frustrated that he didn’t have the elaborate tools to be precise enough to make it work on a regular basis. That’s just one. Transmission of electricity without wires through the ground was the other. However, it would not have been correct at the time for those things to have been presented to humanity. You weren’t ready, but you were ready for alternating current, one of the most needed inventions for the time. Tesla died frustrated, poor, in a small room and alone. He came to do one thing, and was stopped from anything else, then he passed. If you have analyzed the people who were wild cards in your history, there is a pattern.

Other wild card inventors have come into the planet just because the earth was ready for a specific invention. Remember, Spirit does not give the information, but allows for it to be released, often all at once, all over the earth. Let me give you some examples.

Another wild card is the Wright brothers. Isn’t it odd to you that it wasn’t that long ago that you got powered flight? It was just yesterday! Some of your relatives were alive when flight was discovered! Dear ones, the Chinese have been flying kites for thousands of years. Don’t you think that they knew the dynamics of a bird? Do you think that century after century after century occurred and nobody figured out how to sustain flight with any kind of power source? Two bicycle makers figured it out!

That’s odd enough, but the fact that they only beat the French by two weeks is something worth looking at. That’s odd! It’s almost like this profound invention was ready to be given to the planet simultaneously, all over the earth, at the same time. Whoever got to it first would be the ones who got the credit. The real oddity is the timing. It’s not logical that it was so hidden, then suddenly so many were working on it all at once.

The Wright brothers were here to show it to you, then stop. All they did was what you saw at Kitty Hawk. They never went past basic wing warping, and did not have first intuitive thought about ailerons, or the basics of flight control today. For them, it stopped there. Dear ones, there was great frustration, and perhaps even health issues from it, from having others take the basics and develop flight so fast beyond them. Dysfunction and sorrow followed them both, and they died without ever being able to participate fully beyond the initial invention. One died far earlier than the other, creating sorrow for the one left behind. They came to do what they did and move on. This is more common than you know with wild cards, especially when it comes to inventions that change this planet.

Who invented the radio? Was is the Italian Guglielmo Marconi, or our frustrated wild card Tesla? Marconi got the credit, but the invention was everywhere, ready to be claimed. The earth was ripe and ready for it, and it was delivered to the consciousness of the planet at the right time. But both men got it at the same time, apart from each other. I’m giving you things to think about.

We have told you that there are wild card inventions coming in the future. One in particular is ready, but you will not receive it until the time is right. It’s almost like there’s a thinking ceiling on what you can do. We even gave you some of the attributes of the coming invention, but not the one who will bring it. We’re not even concerned that you’ll do it in advance, because we know the wild card is coming. An invention is coming. It is an invention that will rewrite physics as you know it. You’d see the patterns in quantum fields, and there would be the big aha! It would be like reinventing the wheel.

“Kryon, why can’t we have it now? What’s stopping it?” We told you, it’s too easy to weaponize. When you reach the point where you won’t weaponize it, it’s yours. All this is coming. It’s natural, and it will come when it’s time just like the Wright brothers, just like Tesla, just like Einstein.

Einstein was a genuine wild card. He was not a quantum thinker at all, but what he presented is still alive and well today and they’re still looking inside the atom for the concepts he gave you. So I will make this statement: Einstein isn’t finished yet, because the very concepts that continue to be received from his work are going to be applied to the invention of the century. So the Einsteinean principles, even though they are not quantum, will be very much involved in what is coming. You might say he was a wild card and continues to be one. The joke is that his concepts last and last, outside of time, yet his main ideas were with time. If you asked Einstein if he was happy with what he brought to the planet, he would tell you no. He was frustrated that he didn’t get to do what he really wanted. Like Tesla, he felt that something was just “out of reach” and he didn’t get to do it.

Then there was World War II. Dear ones, pretend you are an alien scientist. Disengage your emotion. You’ve come in from another planet to look at this.

World War II (WWII) was not a wild card, but the man who created and enhanced it was. This planet was teetering on the edge of ultimate dark energy and destruction. Nobody expected it. The most despicable old energy card played itself out exactly as it should have, with the consciousness of this planet going to where it had brought itself. You had just finished World War I (WWI), yet WWII ignited and continued. So WWII was simply an extension of WWI. You did it again, only this time the weapons were getting bigger and more able to destroy all of humanity. Remember the prophecy of your scripture? You were headed for mass destruction. WWII would become World War III, and by the year 2000, you would be almost gone.

As I mentioned, WWII wasn’t the wild card, rather it was the man who led the lowest consciousness in recent history who was. He was the wild card, and you know of whom I speak. This wild card killed millions of people who were not even participants in the military portion of the war. Genocide had begun, a race war had begun, and many were following his lead. It showed the darkest side of humanity – more than you had ever seen before, and it almost targeted the demise of civilization if he had won.

It was a horror wild card, and the planet had created it. However, when it was over, the entire world took a breath and for a moment, just for a moment, there was a glimmer of realization: “This cannot go on, for we will do it again.” Many things took place due to this realization. Without the wild card, you would not have the European Union, you would not have the United Nations or any attempt at unity on Earth. Disengage from your logic and emotion, dear ones. These things were not created from Spirit, but rather from the depth of lower humanity. This is the dark side at its worst, showing itself with almost free reign, but the world objected to it and started to climb out of it. It was the beginning over half a century ago of what you’re starting to see now in the shift.

The amazing shift that you’re in right now is something that goes slow. It didn’t happen all at once. The Cold War was a natural occurrence out of the consciousness that was part of the end of WWII. But, dear ones, you could never have the shift if that Cold War had continued the way it was. Enter another wild card: The Soviet system fell over.

The Cold War could not continue, and it was stopped in the form it was in. Dear ones, for those reading now, that was one of the biggest wild cards of all. The consciousness of earth said “no” and it ended. That was a huge wild card. It changed everything; it wasn’t expected; nobody saw it coming, and it changed everything. It may not have changed things immediately to the way you want it right away, but it created that which you needed at that time.

Then there was Steve Jobs. He was a wild card. What he did had little to do with technology, for that would have happened anyway soon enough. Instead, it had to do with the paradigm of the business of music on Earth. He freed it, and the paradigm of how music is obtained and heard will never be the same. However, Steve Jobs did basically one thing for all of you, and then he died. Do you see any kind of connecting of the dots to some of the inventors who come and give you the one thing, then leave? If he had lived, would there be more? Yes, but you’re not ready for it. Consciousness has to support what happens.

Yes, it would seem we have left some things out – the invention of DNA, the atomic bomb, etc. However, these were not wild cards. These are your civilization, within a normal evolution of science. Wild cards are very unexpected things, and there are more coming your way.

The Wild Card of 2016

Remember: No emotion now. You have come from another planet and you’re looking at the end of 2016 – and there is the election. Understand without bias.

So for 2016, let’s do the numerology. You add the numbers and get nine. Nine is completion in simple numerology, and when you see a nine it often means the completion of something. Often it is of a time cycle, an energy or the completion of a paradigm. But it’s very strong.

The nines are stronger than many of the other numerological aspects and you feel them. The president-elect (at this writing) is a strong wild card. He is scheduled to become the 45th president. What a coincidence! Forty-five is a nine. A nine and a nine together are more than significant. They tell a story about what is happening. I will tell you something else. This story is not finished yet and there is more coming. You don’t know what you don’t know, so don’t make up your mind in advance about any outcomes. You’re from another planet, remember? There’s no emotion, no bias, no politics and nothing to judge. Look at it for what it is.

A big stick has just been inserted into what is normal and it’s going to be turned. As the big stick turns, other things will respond that never would have responded otherwise. I wish to tell you, dear one, old soul, relax with upcoming wild cards. They do what they do on purpose so that you will have a better civilization in the future. Sometimes they show you what won’t work, and sometimes they change paradigms that would have never changed otherwise. But what you have now is a profound wild card. That is the message.

It’s so common for you to respond certain ways when you are invested in the process. The knee-jerk reaction is expected or you wouldn’t be a Human. However, for this lesson, you’re from another planet and you’re looking down and you’re seeing it. Pretend.

Isn’t that interesting about a nine and a nine together? It means that truly the end of something is here. Perhaps it’s the end of the old way things were done? Perhaps it’s a shake-up of the system so it can correct itself? Don’t dare make up your mind where it’s going, because it’s not finished yet. However, wait a moment. Did you also realize that 2017 is a “one” year? Not only is the energy one of completion with a double nine, but it moves into “a new beginning” (the definition of a one in numerology).

I have more to tell you about numerology, and also something that will be clearer about this whole situation. I will give this to you in the next channelling.

Can you relax in the face of uncertainty when it’s your own country? Can you relax in the face of not knowing what’s next? When you’re so involved, can you disengage from either side of the fray? That is the test of a Lightworker.

There’s something else coming. Dear ones, this is beautiful. No matter what you think and no matter what your reaction is to this channelling, what is happening is correct for your time and needed for your immediate future. I will speak of this later. The beauty is when you step away and see how grand it is, that Spirit cares enough that it would allow a big stick to occur that would stir your complacency at this time. The real reason? The shift is here.

How do you feel? I want you to relax and smile at what the shift has brought you. For those of you who felt all the “shift talk” was nonsense, this may be your wake-up call. It’s real. Here it comes.

This is the message of the day. I am Kryon, in love with humanity, and for good reason.

And so it is.

KRYON

Related Article:

"Numerology" (3) - Dec 10 - 11, 2016 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - New

Jean-Claude Juncker blocked EU curbs on tax avoidance, cables show

Leaked papers reveal that as Luxembourg’s PM, the European commission president obstructed the bloc’s tax reforms efforts

The Guardian, Simon Bowers, Sunday 1 January 2017

The leak will embarrass Jean-Claude Juncker, who has since said he would
lead EU tackle tax avoidance efforts. Photograph: Xinhua/REX/Shutterstock

The president of the European commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, spent years in his previous role as Luxembourg’s prime minister secretly blocking EU efforts to tackle tax avoidance by multinational corporations, leaked documents reveal.

Years’ worth of confidential German diplomatic cables provide a candid account of Luxembourg’s obstructive manoeuvres inside one of Brussels’ most secretive committees.

The code of conduct group on business taxation was set up almost 19 years ago to prevent member states from being played off against one another by increasingly powerful multinational businesses, eager to shift profits across borders and avoid tax.

Little has been known until now about the workings of the committee, which has been meeting since 1998, after member states agreed a code of conduct on tax policies and pledged not to engage in “harmful competition” with one another.

However, the leaked cables reveal how a small handful of countries have used their seats on the committee to frustrate concerted EU action and protect their own tax regimes.

Efforts by a majority of member states to curb aggressive tax planning and to rein in predatory tax policies were regularly delayed, diluted or derailed by the actions of a few of the EU’s smallest members, frequently led by Luxembourg.

The leaked papers, shared with the Guardian and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists by the German radio group NDR, are highly embarrassing for Juncker, who served as Luxembourg’s prime minister from 1995 until the end of 2013. During that period he also acted as finance and treasury minister, taking a close interest in tax policy.

Despite having a population of just 560,000, Luxembourg was able to resist widely supported EU tax reforms, its dissenting voice often backed only by that of the Netherlands.

Among proposals popular in the code of conduct committee but opposed by Luxembourg were:

• Plans for tax authorities in each member state to subject their dealings with multinational businesses to peer review.

• An investigation into cross-border tax avoidance strategies, known as “hybrid mismatches”, often used by multinationals to conjure up artificial tax savings.

• Improved information sharing between member states on tax deals granted to multinationals in private.

A spokesperson for Luxembourg’s finance ministry refused to comment on the positions previous governments had taken in private EU discussions. “We have no knowledge of the communications you claim to have, and whether they are genuine, and therefore cannot comment on them,” he said.

The spokesperson added: “In recent years Luxembourg has been at the forefront of the global trend towards greater transparency in tax matters and the fight against harmful tax competition.”

The Guardian spoke to another former member of the code of conduct committee, who did not want to be named but corroborated claims in the leaked cables that Luxembourg was regularly among those looking to frustrate EU efforts to tackle tax avoidance.

The source said the committee was no longer fit for purpose. They said it was unable to achieve much because it was governed by unanimity. “Each country is ready to block any agreement. Moreover, each country stands ready to bargain its position on tax against any other topic at stake in the EU,” they said.

Some tax experts contacted by the Guardian confirmed that Luxembourg had begun to move away from certain aggressive tax policies under the current prime minister, Xavier Bettel.

However, the leaked cables suggest the country has remained resistant to other changes. In 2016 it fiercely opposed efforts supported by many countries to strengthen and expand the code of conduct committee’s work.

Luxembourg particularly objected to a relaxation of the committee’s own rules on decision making, insisting there was no need to abandon the unanimity requirement.

France, Germany and Sweden argued unsuccessfully that removing unanimity had become essential to the committee’s effectiveness.

Luxembourg also opposed plans to identify member states that were standing in the way of reforms more clearly. One leaked cable noted: “It has become abundantly clear once again that a majority [of members states] are not interested in real reform. In particular, Luxembourg representatives said they would fundamentally object to any proposal to publish arguments made by Luxembourg in the committee.”

A later cable read: “It is impressive to see how some member states present themselves outwardly as proponents of [international tax reforms] and at the same time to watch how they actually behave in EU discussions, protected by confidentiality.”

The Guardian contacted Juncker’s office for comment. A spokesperson said it was not for the European commission to respond to questions about negotiating positions Luxembourg had taken, or about the country’s past tax policies.

Damaging revelations

Jean-Claude Juncker’s record as Luxembourg’s prime minister has cast an enduring shadow over his presidency of the European commission.

On paper, his marathon 18-year stint at the helm of the EU’s second smallest member state might be hailed a triumph. He recast the fading steel-based economy into a booming hub for international business, and when he departed in 2013 Luxembourg had been transformed into one of the richest countries in the world per capita.

Hundreds of the multinational corporations rushed to channel international profits through subsidiaries in the country, among them McDonald’s, Fiat, Amazon, Shire Pharmaceuticals and Skype.

The secret to this success was exposed in 2014 when the Luxleaks scandal revealed the terms hidden within hundreds of private deals, known as “tax rulings”, that Luxembourg had handed out to multinational businesses behind closed doors.

The rulings effectively rubber-stamped complex tax structures that global corporations used to access ultra-low tax rates, often less than 1%, for profits shifted to Luxembourg.

Juncker conceded the scandal had damaged his reputation. While not illegal, he admitted Luxembourg’s tax system was also “not always in line with fiscal fairness” and may have breached “ethical and moral standards”.

Since then, Juncker has made a point of supporting the EU’s competition commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, as she pursues high-profile investigations into specific tax rulings, including deals Luxembourg granted separately to McDonald’s and Amazon.

The investigations are examining whether the deals were so generous that they amounted to illegal state aid from Juncker’s Luxembourg.

Juncker has also campaigned hard for greater tax cooperation among member states in the battle against international businesses that avoid tax. The latest leaked cables, however, raise further questions about whether he is the right person to champion such reforms.