Here are five things you should know at the end of this week:
Luxembourg MPs greenlit a bill on Wednesday that allows for limited cannabis cultivation and consumption at home.
Can I smoke up at home? - Yes, you can.
People will also be able to cultivate up to four plants in their home or usual place of residence. Cannabis plants can only be grown from seed and must not be visible from public spaces. So, no cannabis planters on balconies or window sills.
Cannabis cultivation will be prohibited for minors.
Can I smoke up in public? - No, you cannot.
Anyone who consumes recreational cannabis or cannabis-derived products outside their home risks a fine of between €25 and €500. The same applies to anyone who possesses, transports, or acquires up to three grams of recreational cannabis or by-products for personal use.
Anyone who buys, possesses, or transports more than three grams of cannabis in Luxembourg risks a much higher fine. The law provides for a prison sentence of between eight days and six months and a fine of between €251 and €2,500.Farewell repression? -
A repressive policy towards drugs is “an absolute failure”, said Minister of Justice Sam Tanson at the end of the debate. For that reason, “we must dare to take another path” and “seek solutions”.MP Dan Biancalana of the Luxembourg Socialist Workers’ Party (LSAP) underlined: “The consumption ban has not stopped people from using cannabis. It is a fact today that the purely repressive approach has remained a failure so far.”
The Pirate Party had wished for an even bolder bill, including the complete legalisation of cannabis, explained MP Marc Goergen: “We can debate it for hours, but the fact is that cannabis is consumed daily”. He brands this bill as “false legalisation” for failing to tackle street dealers.
The National Council for Public Finances (CNFP), responsible for monitoring adherence to European budget and debt rules, has revealed that Luxembourg no longer meets its medium-term household goal.
CNFP president Romain Bausch expressed his concern over what he has labelled a “significant deterioration in public finances in both the short and medium term”.
This assessment is based on the stability plan, which initially only projected a 1.5% deficit, that the Luxembourgish government submitted to Brussels in the spring.
Beyond initial projections - According to the CNFP, Luxembourg’s state finances are experiencing a significant deterioration. The Council, which monitors the government’s adherence to European budget and debt regulations, bases this assessment on the stability plan submitted by the Luxembourgish government to Brussels in the spring.
The plan initially projected a deficit of 1.5% for this year. However, since then, economic forecasts have worsened considerably, leading to a likely increase in the projected deficit.
Rules temporarily suspended - Although it looks as though Luxembourg is currently not in compliance with European budget rules, this does not have immediate consequences for the country as the rules have been temporarily suspended due to the ongoing war in Ukraine.
However, the rules will likely be reinstated next year.
Hope on the horizon? - The deficit for this year can be attributed, in part, to the measures agreed upon during the tripartite negotiations and measures taken at the energy roundtable.
Despite mitigation efforts, Bausch noted that there is a solid deficit” that “will persist in the coming years”.
Nevertheless, there is hope for improvement as Bausch mentioned: “The measures implemented in 2024 will cost €700 million less than in 2023, and in 2025, the cost will be €450 million less than in 2024.”
On Wednesday, searches were carried out at multiple European premises belonging to the German property group Adler, which is currently embroiled in allegations of significant balance sheet fraud.
In a statement sent to AFP, the Luxembourg-based company confirmed the investigation, stating, “we confirm the investigation carried out today (…) at the business premises of the Adler group.”
The operations involved nearly 180 police officers and targeted 21 properties across seven countries, including the Grand Duchy.
Extensive investigation - The German judicial authorities are continuing their investigation into suspicions of “balance sheet falsification, market manipulation, and embezzlement” involving former members of Adler’s management board, all of whom are German, Austrian, or British nationals aged between 38 and 66, according to the public prosecutor’s office.
These suspects are accused of artificially inflating the value of real estate assets on the balance sheet between 2018 and 2020 and signing fraudulent consultancy contracts that resulted in financial losses for the company.
The Adler property group has faced turmoil for several years due to severe allegations of accounting fraud, resulting in a plummeting share price of over 95%. On Wednesday, the share price further declined by 2% to €0.43 on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.
Luxembourg premisses searched - The Frankfurt public prosecutor’s office, in conjunction with the German Federal Criminal Police Office, announced in a press release that “extensive searches” had been conducted at properties belonging to a “company listed on the stock exchange in the real estate sector,” without specifically naming Adler.
The operations involved nearly 180 police officers and targeted “21 properties, including offices, flats, and a law firm” in Germany, primarily in the regions of Berlin and North Rhine-Westphalia, as well as in “six foreign countries,” including “Austria, the Netherlands, Portugal, Monaco, Luxembourg, and the United Kingdom.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused Ukraine and its Western allies of wanting Russians to “kill each other” during a revolt by mercenaries of the Wagner group over the weekend.
In his first address to the nation since the rebels pulled back, Putin said he had issued orders to avoid bloodshed and granted amnesty to the Wagner fighters whose mutiny served up the greatest challenge yet to his two-decade rule.
In response, US Ambassador Lynne Tracy in Moscow reiterated “what we said publicly - that this is an internal Russian affair in which the United States is not involved and will not be involved”.
Aborted revolt - Wagner boss Yevgeny Prighozin called off an advance on Moscow and pulled out of a military base his men had seized in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don, a nerve centre of the war in Ukraine, late on Saturday after mediation efforts from Belarus strongman Alexander Lukashenko.
While some have been exiled to Belarus, the Wagner headquarters in Saint Petersburg said it remained open for business, and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the firm would continue to operate in Mali and the Central African Republic.
Prighozin had earlier defended his aborted mutiny as a bid to save his mercenary outfit and expose the failures of Russia’s military leadership - but not to challenge the Kremlin.
Putin address - “From the start of the events, on my orders steps were taken to avoid large-scale bloodshed,” Putin said in a televised address on Monday, thanking Russians for their “patriotism”.
Putin accused Kyiv and its Western allies of supporting the revolt and thanked his security officials for their work during the armed rebellion in a meeting that included Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, a main target of the mutiny.
Putin attempted to portray the dramatic events at the weekend as a victory for the Russian regular military which has shown restraint in not being drawn into fighting with the Wagner force.
“You de facto stopped civil war,” Putin told troops during a televised address in a Kremlin courtyard and a minute’s silence for airmen slain by Wagner.
“In the confrontation with rebels, our comrades-in-arms, pilots, were killed. They did not flinch and honourably fulfilled their orders and their military duty,” Putin said.
US ‘not involved’ - Saturday’s extraordinary sequence of events has been seen internationally as Russia’s most serious security crisis in decades.
In Washington, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said officials were monitoring “very closely” the turmoil in the nuclear-armed nation. “We did have and were able to have in real-time - through diplomatic channels - conversations with Russian officials about our concerns,” he said.
But the State Department said Ambassador Lynne Tracy in Moscow had contacted Russian officials “to reiterate what we said publicly - that this is an internal Russian affair in which the United States is not involved and will not be involved”.
Protests over the fatal police shooting of a teenager rocked France for a third straight night on Thursday, with cars burned, buildings vandalised, and hundreds arrested in cities across the country.
The nighttime unrest followed a march earlier on Thursday in memory of the 17-year-old, named Nahel, whose death has revived longstanding grievances about policing and racial profiling in France’s low-income and multiethnic suburbs.
Nahel was killed as he pulled away from police who were trying to stop him for a traffic infraction.
What happened? - French police on Tuesday killed a teenager who refused to stop for a traffic check outside Paris, prompting expressions of shock and questions over the readiness of security forces to pull the trigger.
17-year-old Nahel was in the Paris suburb of Nanterre early Tuesday when police shot him dead after he broke road rules and failed to stop, prosecutors said.
A video circulating on social media, authenticated by AFP, shows two police officers trying to stop the vehicle and one pointing his weapon at the driver through the window and firing at point blank when he drives off.
Emergency services tried to resuscitate Nahel at the scene but he died shortly afterwards.
Two investigations - The IGPN national police inspectorate has since opened an investigation into possible intentional killing by a person holding a position of public authority.
At the same time, a separate probe is being carried out by regional police into the driver’s failure to halt and alleged attempt to kill a person holding a position of public authority.
On Thursday, the policeman accused of shooting Nahel in Nanterre was eventually charged with voluntary homicide and remanded in custody.
Nationwide protests - In the aftermath of the incident, thousands of people on Thursday took to the streets of a Paris suburb in memory of the French teen killed by police during a traffic stop, with protesters led by his mother as anger showed no sign of abating.
Some 40,000 police have been mobilised to try to keep the peace on Thursday, more than four times Wednesday’s numbers on the ground when dozens were arrested. Cars and bins were torched Wednesday night in parts of the country, while some 150 people were arrested nationwide following clashes and unrest that left a tramway’s carriages on fire in a Paris suburb.
At least three cities around Paris had issued curfews, while bans on public gatherings were instated and helicopters and drones mobilised in the neighbouring cities of Lille and Tourcoing in the country’s north.
Business & Tech - The EU will take the next crucial step on Wednesday towards launching a digital version of the euro, a controversial project that has come under attack from the public, politicians and banks before it even exists.
Science & Environment - A huge deposit of natural hydrogen, a highly coveted, low-carbon energy source that might eventually become the ‘clean’ oil of the future, has just been discovered in Moselle and appears to hold as much as half the world’s current hydrogen production.https://today.rtl.lu/news/world/a/2066108.html
Entertainment - Scottish singer-songwriter Lewis Capaldi on Tuesday said he was taking a break from performing, after struggling to finish his set at the Glastonbury festival.
Travel - Luxair will offer flights between Luxembourg City and Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, twice per week as of September.
Chamber of Deputies - Following the appointment of Max Hahn as Minister for Family Affairs and Integration, Barbara Agostino was sworn in as new MP for the Democratic Party (DP) in the Chamber of Deputies on Tuesday afternoon.https://today.rtl.lu/news/world/a/2066108.html
Mobility - Ministers Bausch and Turmes unveiled the first public ‘SuperChargy’ ultra-fast charging points at the Pontpierre service station on Tuesday.
Your Weekly Recap is published every Friday at noon. Read earlier versions.
