The Independent Luxembourg Trade Union Confederation (OGBL) met with the government a few days ago and declared an "energy price emergency".

Households "need support," the OGBL wrote in a statement on Tuesday morning. For several months, global economic demand, and more recently the war in Ukraine, have put the energy market under pressure. "A development that is likely to worsen further in the coming months if the war continues," the trade union said, as Luxembourg's motorists are still reeling from last Friday's increase of 18 cents per litre of diesel.
 
The government has announced that it will prepare a series of measures: a ban on cutting off gas or electricity, reform of the financial aid for energy efficiency, and an energy bonus of up to €400.
 
This is a "step in the right direction" but the measures mentioned "may still be highly insufficient if market prices continue to rise", according to the OGBL. For OGBL leaders, the government has been slow to act. This is a criticism that has already been made by the opposition: "Rising prices affect far more people than those from the middle class. And the government is burying its head in the sand," Gilles Roth, co-chair of the CSV parliamentary group, criticised.
 
In order to help the population faster, the OGBL proposed three changes to the cost-of-living benefit (already increased by €200 per month on 1 January):

  • increased amount: temporary increase of the benefit amount to the level of 2020 (Editor's note: it had been doubled to €2,640, compared to €1,652 today)
  • extension to more beneficiaries: raising the threshold to the level of the qualified minimum wage
  • indexation: regular adjustment of the cost-of-living benefit to the price index

The trade union also calls for an adjustment of the tax credit "intended to compensate for the CO2 tax", which was further increased at the beginning of the year. However, the government has stated that at this stage, it wants to decrease the "network costs" of energy, particularly for gas, rather than act on taxation.
 
In accordance with an initiative launched by the International Energy Agency, Luxembourg has also decided to release part of its strategic fuel reserves to regulate the oil market price.