Luxembourg

French presence

French community in Luxembourg: 32,194 registered; 122,000 cross-border workers entering Luxembourg from France every day.
Luxemburgish community in France: 1,000 people.

Visits

In October 2000, the Grand Duke Henri and his spouse made a state visit to France, their first visit abroad following accession to the throne. It was the first state visit to France by a Grand Duke of Luxembourg in 40 years. More recently, TRH visited Metz (12 May 2023) and Longwy (18 June 2023).

Xavier Bettel made regular working visits to France as Prime Minister, and was received by the President of the Republic in July 2023.

The French and Luxemburgish Foreign Ministers meet regularly in both capitals, and on the sidelines of European ministerial meetings. On 24 April 2023, the two Ministers took part in a conference on the challenges facing the European Union, marking the 20th anniversary of the European (French-German-Luxemburgish) Pierre Werner Cultural Institute.

The French Minister of State for Europe and Luxembourg’s Minister of Foreign and European Affairs, Jean Asselborn, also met in September 2022.

Cultural, scientific and technical cooperation

Cultural ties are governed by an agreement from 1954, the 70th anniversary of which will be celebrated in February 2024. The European (French-German-Luxemburgish) Pierre Werner Cultural Institute, inaugurated in 2003, dedicates most of its research activities to European themes.

In late 2020, France’s Grand-Est Region and the Luxemburgish Ministry of Culture signed a cross-border cultural cooperation agreement centred on Esch-sur-Alzette, 2022 European Capital of Culture. The project, which covers 19 municipalities on both sides of the border, was designed bilaterally and seeks to showcase our common history and European identity.

Although action in support of the Luxemburgish language (the main teaching language in primary schools) as an integration language is of political importance, the 2018 coalition agreement does include provisions favourable to the French language. A partnership agreement on teacher training between Luxembourg’s Ministry of Education and the Lorraine School of Teaching and Education (ESPE) was concluded in May 2015 and strengthened in 2021. Since 2016, major reforms have been undertaken to diversify free state school provision and open approved European schools offering francophone sections. Luxembourg’s government aims to develop literacy in French in state elementary schools.

The country has invested in recent years in cutting-edge scientific sectors (including IT, AI, space, health and biomedical technologies, energy and materials physics) and is cooperating with France on key research focuses for our two countries. Universities in Luxembourg and Lorraine are united by various agreements, including within the “Great Region University” framework. There are two bilateral agreements in place: since 2006, between the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and the Luxembourg’s National Research Fund (FNR); and since 2013, between the French National Research Agency (ANR) and the FNR. The University of Luxembourg and Toulouse-Jean Jaurès University are cooperating in the UNIVERSEH project for a European space university. Scientific and academic cooperation was boosted by the signing of an intergovernmental agreement in 2018, strengthened by the IGC sessions in 2021 and 2023, to further existing cooperation in the medical field.

Other cooperation

Given the proximity of the Cattenom nuclear power plant to Luxembourg, our cooperation on nuclear safety and security is intense and carried out in the framework of the joint commission on nuclear security created in 1994 and the involvement of experts from Luxembourg and Germany in the security checks carried out in the plant. The most recent meeting took place on 12 June 2023.

In the security field, a bilateral agreement between France and Luxembourg on police and customs cooperation was signed on 15 October 2001, establishing a joint police and customs centre in Luxembourg that later merged with the Belgian-German-Luxembourgish police cooperation centre to create a unique quadrilateral body. The 2023 IGC session also strengthened our cooperation in this field and launched work towards the upcoming signing of administrative arrangements.