Oliver Paasch, the Minister-president of the German-speaking Community of Belgium, was in Luxembourg on Monday to meet with Prime Minister Xavier Bettel and Minister for the Greater Region Max Hahn.
PM Bettel used the opportunity to award the ‘Order of the Oak Crown’ to Minister Paasch for his commitment to improving bilateral relations between Belgium and the Grand Duchy.
Also on the agenda was the issue of geo-blocking, a technology that restricts access to internet content based on user location, and ways to facilitate people’s access to medical studies in the other country. In that context, Luxembourg’s PM praised Belgium for never closing its borders during the Covid pandemic, unlike Germany.
About 5,000 people commute to the Grand Duchy from the German-speaking region of Belgium on a daily basis. Both Germany and France have long demanded that Luxembourg pay compensations to their cross-border commuters, a vision shared by Minister Paasch, though the latter has a more nuanced approach.
The politician noted: “There is a demand and it is partly fulfilled, because there are agreements that have been concluded between Belgium and Luxembourg and which definitely benefit the East Belgian municipalities. There has been an improvement not too long ago so there are already compensation payments.
“I won’t hide the fact that the whole issue of cross-border workers is a two-edged sword, or are two sides of the same coin.”
Minister Paasch elaborated that cross-border commuters tend to earn well in Luxembourg and that this purchasing power benefits Belgium. However, there is also a lack of workforce in eastern Belgium, he said, which is why it is important to keep discussing the issue.
