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| Eva
Joly is a new entry this year |
Originally from Norway, Eva Joly forged her legal career in
France by specialising in financial affairs before taking
office as an examining magistrate at the High Court in Paris.
In that role, Joly investigated the financial scandal that
consumed France's state-owned petrol company Elf Aquitaine,
gaining a reputation for persistence in fighting corruption and
fraud in the process.
Since 2009 she has represented France as a member of the
Green Party at the European Parliament.
"I am not getting away from combating fraud. This is why I
am going into politics. It's another way of fighting fraud in
the interests of ordinary people, trying to prevent the
oligarchy taking all the power and all the money," Joly told
The Guardian in 2011.
In 2015 she became vice-chair of the European Parliament's
special committee on tax rulings (TAXE) using her passion for
tax justice to help steer the committee's work. This included
reports pushing for public country-by-country reporting (CbCR)
– in 2009, she was the MEP who first tabled the
resolution for CbCR at the European Parliament – as
well as urging the European Commission to accelerate its work
on the common consolidated corporate tax base.
Also in 2015, Joly became a member of the independent
commission for the reform of international corporate taxation
(ICRICT). The group pushed heavily, along with other tax
campaigners, for an intergovernmental tax body within the UN at
the financing for development conference in Addis Ababa in
July.
In a long-spanning career as both magistrate and politician,
Joly has persistently fought for justice. She is also renowned
for not mincing her words. In March, controversy descended on
Eurogoup head Jeroen Dijsselbloem for imposing austerity
conditions on Greece that would cut public spending in vital
sectors, despite coordinating tax policies that deprived other
nations of revenue during his time as Dutch finance
minister.
"To call this hypocrisy is to put it mildly," was Joly's
take on the situation. Straight-talking indeed.
And, while her inclusion in this list is not just
based on her penchant for outrageous (read, cool) eyewear,
ITR definitely approves of those glasses as well.