Last year saw upheaval in the social sector, and for 2026 it is up to the businesses to get ahead, Carlo Thelen told RTL on Friday.
Over the last two decades, European businesses have on average improved their productivity by 20%. However, in Luxembourg, productivity has dropped 2.9%, putting pressure on profitability.
Invité vun der Redaktioun: Chamber of Commerce director general Carlo Thelen (in Luxembourgish).
Following the pension reform, a new health insurance reform is on the cards, Thelen said. The National Health Fund budget must be reduced to prevent it from falling below the legally prescribed reserve next year, which would automatically lead to an increase in contributions. This cannot be permitted to happen, Thelen urged, calling it “poison” for competitiveness.
Thelen also argued that the state needed to invest even more money in the health insurance fund. At the last quadripartite meeting in the autumn, the government had already committed to funding the CNS budget with a subsidy of €59 million for the years 2026-2030.
Thelen wants to take Luc Frieden at his word, after the Prime Minister recently announced that 2026 would be the “year of competitiveness”. In such a complex and risky international situation, a small and open economy such as Luxembourg is in dire need of reforms to strengthen its economic model. Otherwise, Thelen warned, it could not sustain its social model.
Carlo Thelen is sticking to his position: businesses cannot currently afford an increase in the minimum wage.
He argues that Luxembourg is in a good position when measured against the European minimum wage directive.
The minimum wage in Luxembourg is already high and rose again at the start of this year through the usual indexation mechanism.
Any further increase, he says, would only be possible if companies’ productivity allowed it, which is not the case at present. ‘You do not make social policy through the minimum wage,’ said the director general of the Chamber of Commerce, adding that other instruments exist for that purpose.
Although multilateralism is being called into question, the Chamber of Commerce is sticking with strong trade ties with the United States and will travel there again in April for a new mission.
Contacts with the Americans should not be cut off, Carlo Thelen said, stressing that there is still plenty of potential. He also said he hopes Americans themselves will push back against current policy, arguing they will be the ones who suffer most from the new tariffs.
