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Screenshot of Xavier Bettel and Édouard Philippe, the prime ministers of Luxembourg and France, respectively, speaking at a press conference in Paris, 20 March 2018. The PMs announced investments to improve the commute between France and Luxembourg. Image credit: Video of press conference posted on the French government’s Facebook page 

Four agreements were signed at the French prime minister’s office in Paris on Tuesday by a total of 8 Luxembourg and 11 French ministers. This included a “memorandum of understanding on enhanced cooperation in cross-border transport”.

The protocol aims to facilitate cross-border mobility by providing “an increase in capacity on the Lorraine train corridor through Franco-Luxembourg co-financing”. €110 million will be budgeted for rail, to increase service from four to nine trains per hour during peak commuter times, and to improve and enlarge some stations.

€10 million will be used to promote carpooling to decrease motorway traffic.

Luxembourg’s minister of sustainable development and infrastructure, François Bausch, declared that an amendment to this protocol could be established by both governments in case of insufficient fund if “the maximum amount set in the protocol... was not sufficient to finance 50% of the totality of the railway installations on the French territory in the protocol”.

In addition to the mobility agreement, the two governments signed an “administrative cooperation agreement on the posting of workers” who are employed in one country but assigned to work in the other.

According to sources cited by Paperjam, ministers also agreed to an “additional protocol on scientific and university cooperation” that would guarantee 25 places for medical students in French universities.

Reported by François Aulner in Paris; edited by Magaly Piscarel and Aaron Grunwald