In Tuesday morning's interview with Wincrange mayor Lucien Meyers, municipal politics took centre stage.
A vast territory on the one hand, and relatively few residents on the other – who nonetheless expect services comparable to those in urban centres. This is the not-so-simple reality faced by Luxembourg’s largest municipalities by area. Wincrange, the country’s biggest in terms of land size, is a prime example. Mayor Lucien Meyers spoke of the financial challenges involved in running such a municipality, while also pointing to some positive developments in recent years.
He started with the challenges: In Wincrange, a new school, or rather a so-called education centre, combining a school and a Maison relais, is currently under construction. The cost is around €45 million, which exceeds Wincrange's entire annual budget. The municipality also wants to expand its healthcare sector, with plans to extend the local medical centre.
However, the municipality is located quite far from the closest hospital, the Centre Hospitalier du Nord in Ettelbruck. Therefore, it is difficult to attract specialists willing to settle in Wincrange. Regarding drinking water, which must be billed at cost, Mayor Lucien Meyers supports former CSV MP Aly Kaes’s call for a nationwide uniform water rate:
“I think Aly Kaes’s proposal is very relevant in the north because we are the ones with the greatest infrastructure needs. In our case, that’s 27 villages and 90 small blocks, which are buildings in the green zone. For example farms that need water supply. These are huge needs, which naturally drives up the water price up here. Compared to urban areas, it’s much easier to supply a large number of people over a short distance.”
Building sewage treatment plants for the purposes also comes at a high cost. Mayor Meyers is therefore glad that it is no longer required to build a treatment plant in every village.
On communal finances more broadly, things are moving in the right direction. The amount communes must contribute to the employment fund now depends much less on population density.
“The commune of Wincrange used to be the largest net contributor to the employment fund, starting with €700,000 and last year taking up €3.5 million of our budget. We were therefore pleased that the distribution has become somewhat fairer. Now, every commune pays two percent of the commercial tax generated in its territory. This is true solidarity.”
Municipalities are also not as "punished" so to speak if they have too many jobs within their territory. This particularly hurt the Clervaux canton the most given their large industrial zone.
Wincrange is a merged municipality, fused in 1978 and originally being four smaller municipalities. Meyers explained why he believes many municipalities find difficulties in merging with other municipalities:
"Today, this is more difficult because each municipality, has their own infrastructure, schools, communal buildings, sport's halls, swimming pools. Some may not have all. But if we aren't able to find a joint venture, then these self-identities will become stronger and it'll be harder to fuse identities. Personally, I believe joint projects are deeply important."
A larger financial incentive from the state could help but most importantly, people need to have a reason to come together. This is the only way we can create a communal identity.
