The government presented parliament with the confidential memoranda of understanding between the state, Bissen commune and Google during a closed session on Thursday.

Xavier Bettel, the prime minister (DP), Pierre Gramegna, the finance minister (DP), and Franz Fayot, the economy minister (LSAP) appeared before the Chamber of Deputies economy committee.

“The meeting went very well,” LSAP MP Claude Haagen said afterwards. “We had time to look at both documents and ask cabinet ministers appropriate questions.”

Opposition MPs had demanded to see the terms last week.

Memorandum of understanding misunderstanding

The government’s Commission on the Access to Documents (Commission d’accès aux documents) recommended last month that agreements be released, following a request from the environmental campaign group Mouvement écologique.

However, the economy ministry decided to keep the documents confidential. The ministry told Paperjam that the CAD opinion was not binding and the legal analysis by the five members of the commission has been challenged. The government argued the papers are not, technically speaking, public documents.

“We consider this MOU to be a declaration of intent that is part of a broader approach, not an administrative document per se,” according to a ministry spokesperson. The commission should have, in the ministry’s view, considered the exceptions “as provided by law for documents that may or may not be made public, and there are many”.

In particular, “the MOU contains confidential commercial and economic information”.  For the administration, it is also, “a matter of principle, because these declarations of intent are important and useful working tools. We spend a lot of time with companies.” The MOUs “are part of our strategy of economic dynamism. To make them public is to make them lose their value. And many companies don’t want them to be in the marketplace.”

Decision to be challenged

Mouvement écologique said it would appeal the decision before Luxembourg’s administrative tribunal.

The group’s president, Blanche Weber, said: “The government is taking an undemocratic decision here, especially at a time when the importance of factual information--of good transparency and the exchange of views--is becoming more and more evident instead of enabling ‘fake news’. We are far from an open and democratically transparent state."

Local tech industry support

Gérard Hoffmann, chair of the industry trade group ICTLuxembourg, called for the deal to be completed. “It is regrettable that the issue has taken a negative turn,” Hoffmann said in an interview.

“But, it is an infrastructure [project] that is at the forefront when it comes to the consumption of natural resources. It is important to count on the presence of one of these players in this sector in Luxembourg, in order to have a superior cloud. I would add that such an infrastructure means a need in terms of skills and in turn that generates an ecosystem around high-level engineers, artificial intelligence,” Hoffmann stated. “The trend towards the cloud is driving the need for large players to invest in additional sites.”

Reported by Nicolas Léonard and Thierry Raizer for Paperjam; English version edited by Aaron Grunwald