Luxembourg MPs have a busy week of committee work. Highlights include two new meetings of the Special Caritas Committee. Marie-José Jacobs will be reviewed on Monday. The former board chair, who stepped down from the post on 1 January this year, on 25 September 2024 in front of the RTL cameras. The MPs will surely be asking her for more than an apology, just as they will with Marc Crochet, the president of the Fondation Caritas Luxembourg in office at the time of the embezzlement of €62m. .

Meanwhile, there’s a week of committee work at the European Parliament. Highlights include the conference “Affordable Housing: Responding to the Housing Crisis in the European Union,” organised by the Special Committee on the Housing Crisis in the EU. This committee will lead a debate on the causes of this crisis, how the EU can help its member states resolve it and what measures could be taken at European level. MEPs will also prepare for the plenary session from 31 March to 3 April, which will focus on the EU’s common foreign, security and defence policy, internal security, the automotive industry and trans-European transport infrastructure.

Monday, 24 March

Council of the EU. The Agriculture and Fisheries Council meets in Brussels. The ministers will discuss the vision for agriculture and food that agriculture commissioner  published on 19 February. The minister for agriculture, food and viticulture, , will be making the trip.

European Parliament. The conference “Affordable Housing: Responding to the Housing Crisis in the European Union” will take place.

Council of the EU. Informal meeting on 24-25 March in Varvovia of the health ministers. Participants will discuss how to ensure the mental wellbeing of children and young people in a digitised world, in the age of modern digital technologies and social media. They will also discuss the factors that influence the effectiveness of prevention programmes and what can be done to ensure patient access to pharmaceutical products across the European Union.

Court of Justice of the European Union. Hearings will take place in the WebGroup Czech Republic and NKL Associates (C-188/24) and Coyote System (C190/24) cases. In the first case, two publishers of pornographic websites are challenging, on the grounds of European law, the French law which requires these publishers to put in place an effective system for monitoring the age of users. In the second case, the issue is the legality of collaborative sharing of road traffic information, mainly police checks.

Government. Economy minster  and finance minister , present the “10 points of action for startups” action plan. This action plan, stemming directly from the 2023 roadmap for the development of the startup ecosystem in Luxembourg--“From Seed to Scale”--aims to provide tangible support to startups and scale-ups in order to make the development of the startup ecosystem in Luxembourg a reality.

Government. Opening of the sixth Sustainable Development Education Fair, an event co-organised by the ministry for the environment, climate and biodiversity, the ministry for national education, children and youth and the Directorate for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Action.

Chambre des députés. Meeting of the Caritas Special Commission, which will hear Marie-Josée Jacobs.

House of Deputies. The president of the Cabo Verdean parliament Austelino Tavares Correia will be received at the Chamber of Deputies for an exchange of views with members of the Bureau and the Foreign Affairs Committee.

Chamber of Deputies. Foreign affairs and trade minister  will be received by the parliamentary committee for an exchange of views on the meetings of the Foreign Affairs Council on 24 February and the General Affairs Council on 25 February.

At the same meeting, MPs will attend the presentation of Bill 8416, which concerns large-scale marine protected areas on the high seas and approves the agreement linked to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and relating to the conservation and sustainable use of the marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction. A rapporteur will be appointed.

House of Deputies. Presentation to the gender equality and diversity committee of the national action plan for equality between women and men and the national centre for victims of violence project.

Members’ Chamber. The MPs who are members of the institutions and budget implementation committees will debate, with representatives of the state ministry, the special report of the court of audit on the control of the legality and regularity of the expenditure of the house of the Grand Duke for the financial years 2021 and 2022.

European Court of Auditors. The ECA presents a special report on value added tax fraud on imports. A report in which it examines whether the EU’s financial interests are sufficiently protected when simplified customs procedures are applied to exports.

Tuesday, 25 March

Chamber of Deputies. At the LSAP’s request, members of the national education and spatial planning committees will examine the sectoral plan for upper secondary schools, its potentially being updated and its potential integration into a spatial planning concept.

House of Representatives. Presentation of Bill 8498, which aims to transpose several European texts: a text on the simplification and harmonisation of transparency rules relating to trading data of financial instruments on trading platforms; the “listing package,” which should facilitate access to capital markets, in particular for small and medium-sized enterprises, while maintaining an appropriate level of investor protection and market integrity; and the European Single Access Point (ESAP), providing centralised access to published information useful for financial services, capital markets and sustainability.

European Parliament. Parliament publishes its Winter 2025 Eurobarometer Survey.

Wednesday, 26 March

Members’ Chamber. The Caritas Special Commission will meet and hear Marc Crochet, the former director general of the Caritas Luxembourg Foundation.

House of Deputies. Public petition 3000 on the introduction of a “head of family” premium for all people with dependent children in Luxembourg will be the subject of a public debate in the chamber of deputies, in the presence of the petitioners, MPs and government representatives. The petition, submitted by Miranda Dara, has been signed by 4,823 people.

Court of Justice of the European Union. The Court will deliver its judgments in the cases between Bank of America, Natixis, Nomura, RBS (now NatWest), UBS, UniCredit and WestLB (now Portigon) and the Commission. On 20 May 2021, the European executive fined them for a cartel on the primary and secondary markets for European government bonds. Nomura, UBS and UniCredit were fined a total of €371m. NatWest, which had revealed the cartel to the commission, was not fined. Neither was Bank of America or Natixis, as their offences were time-barred. Portigon was fined nothing because it had generated zero-net turnover in the last financial year, which was used to determine the maximum fine.

European Court of Auditors. The ECA presents its special report on labour market reforms implemented in EU countries and financed by the €650bn recovery and resilience facility (RRF).

Thursday, 27 March

Government. At the invitation of the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess, the president of the Republic of Singapore, Tharman Shanmugaratnam and Jane Ittogi Shanmugaratnam will pay a state visit to Luxembourg on 27-28 March 2025. On 28 March, joint statements by the president of the Republic of Singapore, and prime minister , are scheduled to take place at Senningen Castle.

Council of the EU. Environment council to be held in Brussels. The ministers will examine the environmental dimension of the clean industry pact, which was presented by the commission on 26 February 2025 in the form of a joint roadmap for competitiveness and decarbonisation. They will then hold an exchange of views on global environmental policies in the presence of Inger Andersen, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme.

House of Representatives. Representatives of the National Commission for Data Protection (CNPD) will be received before the Justice Committee for an exchange of views on Bill 7424, which concerns “the establishment of a single common secure electronic transmission platform serving the judicial authorities, on the one hand, and the state intelligence service, on the other.”

House of Deputies. Members of the home affairs committee will attend the presentation of three bills and a draft law concerning careers in the Grand Ducal Police (draft 8452 and draft 8024), the introduction of the local police unit (draft 8513) as well as video surveillance for police purposes in public areas (draft 8512).

Friday, 28 March

Council of the EU. Meeting in Brussels of a “general affairs” council devoted mainly to cohesion policy.

This article in French.