Here’s 5 things you should know about at the end of this week:
On Wednesday the Luxembourgish politician was finally appointed Eva Kaili’s successor as vice-president of the Parliament.
After an internal vote, the MEP ultimately won with 307 votes in his favour.
Why the need for a new VP? Belgian prosecutors are currently investigating alleged graft in the European Parliament benefitting Qatar and Morocco.
Former VP Eva Kaili was arrested in December 2022. Kaili is accused of accepting bribes from World Cup hosts Qatar to influence the EU policy debate. After a raid, police found 1.5 million police found 1.5 million euros in cash at her house.
On Tuesday 17 January a key suspect cut a deal. In return, he would get a “limited sentence” including imprisonment, a fine and confiscation of one million euros ($1.1 million) in assets
Angel pleads for more transparency in the EU parliament.He wants stricter rules and a full investigation into the corruption scandal involving his predecessor Eva Kaili.
Tune in. Marc Angel is the next guest on Conversations with Christos. The episode will go live on RTL Play at 6pm on Tuesday.
Read also:EU parliament chief publishes list of gifts late
According to Statec, the cost of building houses in Luxembourg has risen by 16% in one year.
The cost of renting a home in Luxembourg City has more than doubled since 2010, with rents increasing by 4.7% between 2021 and 2022.
MP Sven Clement calls Minister for Housing Henri Kox’s rent reform “disastrous”.
The 16% rise in building costs represents the highest annual increase in close to 50 years. Many projects have been put on hold since since the market is lacking predictability.
Since Luxembourg builds less, the pressure on the rental market will increase. With fewer people able to buy a property, demand for rental units has subsequently increased.
Due to increases in mortgage interest rates by banks, rents have been increasing as well and finding a new home in Luxembourg is becoming increasingly difficult.
At the beginning of October Housing Minister Kox announced a rent law reform. According to Sven Clement from the Pirate Party, the new reform “disproportionately favours long-term owners while working against tenants and landlords”.
Martin Jonsson wrote an opinion piece about the floundering response to the unsustainable cost of housing.
Read also: LSAP accuses housing minister of “deceiving” them over rent reforms
On Wednesday Antonio Guterres told the World Economic Forum that oil firms should be held accountable for lying about their role in global warming.
Guterres drew a parallel between the actions of oil companies and tobacco companies, linking back to the huge lawsuits over the adverse effects of cigarettes.
A study by the journal Science showed that ExxonMobil had dismissed the findings of it’s own scientist on the role of fossil fuels in climate change, meaning that the fuel producer was fully aware of the consequences in the 1970s.
“With shocking accuracy”. The study furthermore shows that Exxon’s scientists predicted global warming “with shocking accuracy”, only for the company “to spend the next couple of decades denying that very climate science.”
Guterres calls on business leaders to provide “credible and transparent” plans on how to achieve net-zero emissions.
Culture of climate misinformation and confusion: Due to “dubious and murky” benchmarks and criteria in corporate pledges consumers, investors and regulators will be mislead, feeding into a culture of greenwashing.
According Nora Back, President of the Chamber of Employees, employees and pensioners are suffering.
Back has called on the government to take action since inequality and the risk of poverty are soaring in the Grand Duchy.
“High time to act” - due to the intensity of work that has increases in recent decades and rise of psychosomatic illnesses.
Minister of Labour Georges Engel is ‘not against’ working time reduction. He recognises that the discussion revolves around the attractiveness of the labour market in Luxembourg.
Hope for a discussion based on facts. While the current coalition agreement does not foresee such reduction, the minister is looking forward to a new study that will be published by March.
Reduction in working time can be a key element for attracting people to Luxembourg, reducing the risk of illnesses, and a better social life. A survey found that many Luxembourgish employers are in favour of home office.
Read also: Long-term unemployed represent close to half of Luxembourg’s job seekers.
https://today.rtl.lu/news/luxembourg/a/2018936.html
On Thursday strikes crippled much of France’s public transport as protesters came out in force against a deeply unpopular pensions overhaul, with schools and media also heavily affected.
Last week the government presented changes that included a raise of the retirement ages from 62 to 64 and an increase of the years of contributions required for a full pension.
“Unjust reform”. Opinion polls show that around two-thirds of French people oppose raising the retirement age.
Frances’ current retirement age is one of the lowest in the European Union. In Luxembourg, retirement age is at 65.
Unions are suspicious of the overhaul. Their goal is to protect those who started working at a young age or have been working in physically demanding jobs.
A new legislative package on waste management seeks to reduce plastic consumption and simplify waste sorting. Supermarkets will now be more heavily implicated in terms of environmental responsibility, including no longer selling certain fresh products in plastic film.
Luxembourgish climate activists joined the protest in Lützerath. Over the weekend some tens of thousands of protestors demonstrated against the demolition of the village and subsequent extension of the adjacent open-cast coal mine.
New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern announced her shock resignation on Thursday. Ardern, who steered the country through natural disasters, the Covid pandemic, and its worst-ever terror attack, said she no longer had “enough in the tank”. She plans to step down no later than 7 February.
German Defence Minister Christine Lambrecht has resigned. She handed over her resignation on Monday after she had been under fire for months of Germany’s stuttering response to the war in Ukraine.
Ukraine’s interior minister died in a helicopter crash on Wednesday. Sixteen people, including two children and the minister, were killed when a helicopter crashed near a kindergarten outside the capital Kyiv.
How feminist are Luxembourg’s political party? Gender equality non-profit ‘Fraen and Gender’ has published an analysis which seeks to gauge Luxembourg’s political parties’ approach to women’s rights. 7 out of 9 parties answered questions on areas such as education, work, family, health, foreign policy, culture, as well as politics and society.
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