- This week’s trade mission to the US headed by Crown Prince Guillaume and Étienne Schneider ended on a positive note, Schneider said on Thursday evening. The delegation focused exclusively on the space industry and the government’s Spaceresources.lu programme. “All of the players we met support the initiative,” stated Schneider, who is deputy prime minister and economy minister. The next step is to revise a draft bill before parliament that would put the country’s asteroid mining plans on legal footing; the Council of State criticised the legislation just before the trade mission started.
- Luxembourg’s prime minister heads to Canada next week. Xavier Bettel will meet with his Canadian counterpart, Justin Trudeau, in Ottawa, to discuss boosting economic ties under the new Canada-EU trade deal, Ceta. Bettel and Pierre Gramegna, the grand duchy’s finance minister, will also meet with Bill Morneau, Canada’s finance minister, and other officials.
- Raphaël Halet will launch a second appeal against his sentence in the LuxLeaks case. Earlier this month Antoine Deltour, the other ex-PwC employee convicted during last year’s trial, said he would likewise file a second appeal. Both sentences were reduced in March following their first appeals. Cases before the supreme court are mostly written pleadings. This is the last step in the LuxLeaks case in the grand duchy’s judicial system. However, the matter can be appealed further to the European Court of Human Rights, in Strasbourg.
- 65 nominees, in 13 categories, are up for the Luxembourg Design Awards. The second edition of the awards, organised by the trade group Design Luxembourg, will take place at the l’Abbaye de Neumünster on 1 June.
- A new ridesharing platform to serve Luxembourg residents and cross-border commuters will launch soon. Covo (short for “covoiturage”, the French expression for ridesharing) was started by Touring Association Luxembourg; while Covo will remain a not-for-profit undertaking, users must be TAL members (€39 a year) and the service is run in French. The app is expected to be live on the Apple App Store and Google Play in May.