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BRUSSELS: The European Commission unveiled a new push to fight tax evasion on Thursday as questions lingered over Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker's role in enabling companies to pay less tax during his 19 years as Luxembourg premier.

The "political timing is now right" for tax reform, said Commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas, a day before Junker heads to Brisbane, Australia for a G20 summit aimed at tightening global tax rules.

On Wednesday, Juncker broke a week-long silence following the revelation that Luxembourg allowed hundreds of top companies -- including Pepsi, IKEA and Deutsche Bank -- to enjoy preferential tax treatment.

Among the hundreds of special arrangements, revealed in an international journalistic investigation, were cases that left tax bills as low as 1.0 percent of earnings for some of the world's richest companies.

Juncker, who took his Brussels post on November 1, denied he was the "architect" of the system and vowed to fight "unfair" tax evasion as head of the EU's executive.

To do so, Juncker tasked economic affairs commissioner Pierre Moscovici to draw up plans to create an EU-wide automatic exchange of information on tax arrangements.

For now, EU countries can hold corporate tax deals, known as "tax rulings", secret, allowing companies to shop around and "arbitrate" between different national tax regimes.

The commission also decided to revive a plan that would allow multinationals operating in the EU to streamline tax payments by providing a common tax base across member states.

The scheme, which would require far greater transparency on tax matters, was launched in 2012 but quickly left for dead by reluctant members states.

"It's time to give it a new life," said Schinas. Both ideas would require the approval of EU member states, hardly a given in a bloc where tax policy remains a valued national power.

Excerpt from:
European Union vows tax reform as Jean-Claude Juncker heads to G20

Britains chances of leaving the European Union are just under 50 percent, former U.K. Prime Minister John Major said, urging leaders across the bloc to be statesmen and find agreement.

Major, whose determination to pilot the EUs Maastricht Treaty through Parliament nearly cost him his job in the 1990s, used a speech in Berlin late yesterday to tell European and British politicians they need to work harder to find an accommodation. His successor as Conservative prime minister, David Cameron, has pledged to renegotiate aspects of the U.K.s EU membership, restrict immigration, and hold an referendum by 2017 on staying in the bloc or leaving.

Pointing out that the EU hasnt enforced the free movement of capital or the free market, Major said the bloc should find ways to help Britain restrict immigration after its population has grown 7 percent in a decade.

The sheer scale of the influx has put strains on our health, welfare, housing and education services that we struggle to meet - and has held down wages for many of the poorest members of our society, Major said. I hope our European partners will understand our dilemma and help us to find a solution.

Major said that leaders have to be prepared to talk about immigration. I hate having to make this argument, he said. As a boy, I was brought up among immigrants in south London. They were my friends and my neighbors.

Still, he said, its impossible to continue absorbing such numbers in the U.K. without huge public disquiet. Across Europe, migration is powering the rise of single-issue political parties whose convictions are alien to a liberal and civilized society, he said. Some are racist: others are borderline racist. Some are merely bigots.

The former premier, who left office after being defeated in the 1997 election by Tony Blair, listed Britains probable demands in negotiations: an exemption from ever-closer union; the implementation of the single market; and a pragmatic approach to freedom of movement.

He urged both sides to approach the negotiations with care, with a determination to find a solution -- not justify a breach. Wise negotiators will tone down the oratory and turn up the diplomacy.

To contact the reporter on this story: Robert Hutton in London at rhutton1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alan Crawford at acrawford6@bloomberg.net Eddie Buckle, Andrew Atkinson

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U.K.s Chance of Leaving EU Just Under 50%, Major Warns

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