After the investigation by university experts, the PM decided to rescind his DEA, rather than revise it.

The investigation had concluded that parts of the DEA, the "Diplôme d'études approfondies" that Xavier Bettel had submitted in 1998, could be considered plagiarism. The university recommended that the PM revise it or lose his DEA. Bettel decided to rescind it personally rather than rewrite it to correctly cite his sources.

The statement issued by the Ministry of State stressed that the work was a synthesis, a "compilation of documents", and compliant with the instructions regarding citation of documents as they were used at the time.

Université de Lorraine reacts

The University published their own statement, going into more detail about the decisions. The investigation was led by two reporters and had also heard Bettel's former "directeur du travail" during his DEA. They also state that it was "an original work of compilation and synthesis", but that some parts of the document "could be considered a form of plagiarism" because these passages "had not been cited correctly".

In an interview with RTL, the president of the University reiterated these points. He regrets Bettel's decision to rescind his DEA altogether. After all, all they had asked of him were corrections to the form, not the contents of the work.

The final grade, which was below average, would also remain unchanged. He doesn't think the affair harmed the university's reputation, however.