Luxembourg

Abstract

A number of decisions voted on by the Chamber of Deputies in 2011 became effective in 2012. As part of a long-term plan for reduction in the number of municipalities, 16 of them merged into six new entities as of 1 January (Dumont et al. 2010, 2012: 202–205). Having been decided by a vote in December 2011, a new ombudsman (‘médiateure’) was appointed. On 1 February, Lydie Err, former Socialist MP (and junior minister in 1998– 1999) took over from Marc Fischbach, who had been a Christian-Social MEP, government minister in the 1990s and a judge at the European Court of Human Rights before being chosen as Luxembourg’s first ombudsman by parliamentary vote in December 2003. Err’s mandate is to last until 2020.Also on 1 February the socialist Etienne Schneider took office, as scheduled by an internal Socialist Worker’s Party (LSAP) vote in November 2011 (Dumont et al. 2012: 201), replacing Jeannot Krecké as Minister of Economy and Foreign Trade. The latter had made his frustration about his role in the government known to the public as early as 2010, arguing that the Economy portfolio was a coordination ministry deprived of the instruments that would enable its holder to initiate and implement reforms. Aside from lamenting the weight of legal and administrative burdens that allegedly made his actions less effective, Krecké was also in the limelight in a series of controversies, as well as being criticised in his own ranks and by the socialist trade union for his views on reforms aimed at improving the country’s economic competitiveness (see also below).