European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker urged a global fight against tax evasion Saturday while defending his position after revelations top companies paid less tax during his time as Luxembourg premier.
European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker speaks during questioning at the EU headquarters in Brussels, on November 12, 2014
"I really do think that on the international, on the global level, we have to fight all together against tax evasion," he told reporters ahead of the G20 summit in Brisbane.
Tax avoidance is a key issue at the gathering of world leaders for the G20 summit in the Australian city, with the host country Friday vowing a "very aggressive" crackdown on the practice.
Asked whether he agreed that Luxembourg's tax policies had been "picking peoples' pockets", Juncker said: "Tax avoidance is an important issue for each and everyone of us."
"We are decided in Europe to fight against tax evasion," he said, adding that when he had addressed the EU before being voted into office as president he had mentioned this as an issue.
Juncker said tax evasion sometimes happened due to the "interactions between very divergent national tax rules".
"In accordance with the law you can create a situation, the result of it is a very low taxation for companies. This has to be avoided," he said.
Closing corporate tax loopholes and endorsing a common reporting standard to increase transparency are set to be a primary focus of the G20 summit in Brisbane this weekend.