On Monday, the Union of Cities and Municipalities in Luxembourg presented a list of 36 proposals ahead of next year's municipal and Chamber elections.

One of the 36 proposed measures is that municipalities should be able to benefit from the 'mobilisation tax' that the government recently presented. Once in effect, this new measure will force real-estate owners to pay a tax on land unused for longer than five years.

The government, however, stated that it will collect the revenues of said tax, same as the ones from the adapted tax on empty apartments. In both cases, Syvicol representatives argue that the union should receive the benefits. After all, municipalities will be in charge of setting up a register to record all the apartments.

Union representatives further argue that the government's financial support for social housing, currently set at €1,500 per apartment, should be doubled.

Syvicol also believes that the number of residents required for a municipality to change from plurality block voting to proportional representation with party lists should be increased from 3,000 to 6,000. According to the union, a growing number of people are interested in running for local office without party affiliation.

Syvicol president Emile Eicher further pleaded for the creation of a 'Chamber of Municipalities', which should help institutionalise the cooperation between government and municipalities in the future.