Maurice Bauer, first alderman (CSV), and Lydie Polfer, mayor of Luxembourg City (DP), took advantage of the City Breakfast press conference on 17 September 2024 to take stock of the capital’s social services agreements signed with the NGO Caritas. Photo: Ioanna Schimizzi

Maurice Bauer, first alderman (CSV), and Lydie Polfer, mayor of Luxembourg City (DP), took advantage of the City Breakfast press conference on 17 September 2024 to take stock of the capital’s social services agreements signed with the NGO Caritas. Photo: Ioanna Schimizzi

The mayor of Luxembourg City, Lydie Polfer, took the opportunity of a City Breakfast to discuss the Caritas affair and the consequences for the agreements signed with the non-profit organisation, which represent a budget of around three million euros per year.

"We have around six agreements with Caritas for services that are really important and that are mainly linked to homelessness, such as the Courage bistro in Bonnevoie, with the supervised accommodation above it, or the social grocery shop. So it's important that these services can continue, and that the people who provide them are paid", explained the mayor of Luxembourg City, (DP), to the press on Tuesday 17 September, during a City Breakfast press conference that focused, among other things, on extending the powers of municipal staff and the start of the new school year.

Polfer said she was already in contact with the people in charge of the new structure called which will succeed Caritas to continue the institution's national activities from1 October. "So it's our aim to find new agreements by1 October with the new not-for-profit organisation that will take over these services. The budget we allocate to these services each year is in the region of three million euros”.

Discussions are also underway with the Luxembourg government about taking over the national agreements with this new entity, from1 October. While national activities will be able to continue, Caritas announced on Saturday 14 September that the Luxembourg foundation "has been forced to put an end to its international activities". This decision will result in the loss of around 30 of the foundation's employees in Luxembourg, as well as 70 employees in South Sudan and Laos.

Read the French-language version of this report