M2E in Eclipse gives maven-compiler-plugin errors, but Maven installation is fine
<p>I've installed Maven 3.3.9 and I'm running Eclipse Mars 2 with JDK 1.8.0_65.</p>

<p>I've tried to create a Maven Project, yet it always returns four errors:</p>

<pre><code>Description Resource    Path    Location    Type
CoreException: Could not get the value for parameter compilerId for plugin execution default-compile: PluginResolutionException: Plugin org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-compiler-plugin:3.1 or one of its dependencies could not be resolved: Failed to collect dependencies at org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-compiler-plugin:jar:3.1 -&gt; org.codehaus.plexus:plexus-container-default:jar:1.5.5 -&gt; org.apache.xbean:xbean-reflect:jar:3.4 -&gt; log4j:log4j:jar:1.2.12: ArtifactDescriptorException: Failed to read artifact descriptor for log4j:log4j:jar:1.2.12: ArtifactResolutionException: Failure to transfer log4j:log4j:pom:1.2.12 from https://repo.maven.apache.org/maven2 was cached in the local repository, resolution will not be reattempted until the update interval of central has elapsed or updates are forced. Original error: Could not transfer artifact log4j:log4j:pom:1.2.12 from/to central (https://repo.maven.apache.org/maven2): The operation was cancelled.   pom.xml /PluginBasedPasswords   line 1  Maven Project Build Lifecycle Mapping Problem
</code></pre>

<p>I get a similar error to the one above but for <em>plugin execution default-testCompile</em></p>

<p>The other two (one for default-compile and the other for default-testCompile) have a structure like this:</p>

<pre><code>Description Resource    Path    Location    Type
Plugin execution not covered by lifecycle configuration: org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-compiler-plugin:3.1:compile (execution: default-compile, phase: compile)    pom.xml /PluginBasedPasswords   line 1  Maven Project Build Lifecycle Mapping Problem
</code></pre>

<p>The project creation wizard shows me a similar version:</p>

<p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/AS5Gt.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/AS5Gt.png" alt="Import Maven Projects GUI showing the errors I&#39;m receiving."></a></p>

<p>I've followed several tutorials for installing Maven and setting my environment variables so I doubt it is them (if needed: PATH: <code>C:\ProgramData\Oracle\Java\javapath;C:\Program Files\Maven\apache-maven-3.3.9\bin;;C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.8.0_65\bin;C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.8.0_73;</code>, M2_HOME: <code>C:\Program Files\Maven\apache-maven-3.3.9</code> and JAVA_HOME: <code>C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.8.0_65</code>)</p>

<p>My Maven installation seems to be functional because running <code>mvn -version</code> returns: </p>

<pre><code>C:\Windows\system32&gt;mvn -version
Apache Maven 3.3.9 (bb52d8502b132ec0a5a3f4c09453c07478323dc5; 2015-11-10T16:41:4
7+00:00)
Maven home: C:\Program Files\Maven\apache-maven-3.3.9
Java version: 1.8.0_65, vendor: Oracle Corporation
Java home: C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.8.0_65\jre
Default locale: en_GB, platform encoding: Cp1252
OS name: "windows 7", version: "6.1", arch: "amd64", family: "dos"
</code></pre>

<p>I've also updated my M2E plugin via the Esclipse Marketplace so I truly have no idea what's going wrong. Any help?</p>