Interior minister Taina Bofferding says the planned Nordstad merger should not be reduced “to financial considerations”. Guy Wolff/Maison Moderne

Interior minister Taina Bofferding says the planned Nordstad merger should not be reduced “to financial considerations”. Guy Wolff/Maison Moderne

The minister of the interior has doubled its offer for financial support for the fusion to create a new super-commune in the north of the country.

The five Nordstad communes of Bettendorf, Diekirch, Erpeldange, Ettelbruck and Schieren have said they will wait until their respective councils have met before responding to a fresh offer from the government to support their formal fusion.

Following last Friday’s cabinet meeting, the minister of the interior, Taina Bofferding (LSAP), announced a proposal to double the amount of special aid the state will provide to a total of €58.854m. The communes, however, had been asking for support of €120m.

The interior ministry said in a communiqué that the new sum “is justified for a number of reasons”. The state and the five communes want to make the future Nordstad the third development pole in the grand duchy, alongside Luxembourg City and Esch-Alzette. “Moreover, because of its size, the Nordstad merger is exceptional, considering that it is a merger of five communes,” the press release stated. But the ministry also said that the request of special aid amounting to €5,000 per capita--the equivalent of €120m--was “not justified when compared to the aid granted to previous mergers.” Bofferding said that the government would provide other means of support and that “we should not reduce a merger to financial considerations, but refocus the discussion around a common vision of and for the Nordstad.”

One other point of contention, the construction of the Nordstad regional fire and rescue (CGDIS) centre, has been resolved, the ministry said. The ministry has worked out a plan to free up land for the centre after working with the ministries of spatial planning and the environment.

The five communes are still hoping to hold referenda on the formal fusion before the summer of 2022, a year before the next local elections scheduled for 11 June 2023. But that will not happen until an agreement has been found on the financing of the project. The mayor of Schieren, Eric Thill, told Delano in early November that plans to hold the referendum next summer had already been “very sporty” and that delays caused by the covid pandemic and the dispute over financing were making it look less likely that the June 2022 target could be met.