Your daily briefToday's most important news in one place

Chamber passes reforms on Sunday work and opening hours

On Thursday morning, members of the Chamber of Deputies debated two vital bills regarding work on Sundays and opening hours, with the government majority voting in favour.

The result is that both bills were passed in the Chamber of Deputies, albeit just with the votes of the CSV and DP governing coalition, so in future, retail and craft businesses will be able to open for eight hours on a Sunday, instead of just four and stores will be able to open from 5am until 9pm – with confirmation the threshold of 30 employees would remain.

The Greens’ MP Djuna Bernard criticised the fact that businesses with fewer than 30 members of staff would not need to negotiate a collective agreement in order to benefit from the new hours: “This threshold of 30 employees is arbitrary, there is no systematic context in terms of labour law. It is purely a political compromise... In contrast, there is already a figure which is clearly featured in the law: 15 employees. This is the threshold needed for a staff delegation. It is based on the idea that collective representation is necessary for this amount of staff as employees’ dependence increases.”

Also today

• Lawmakers have unanimously approved a new pre-financing scheme that will let households installing solar panels pay only the unsubsidised share upfront, with installers reclaiming the state aid directly from government.
• Luxembourg’s housing market cooled in the third quarter of 2025, with sales activity easing after a tax-driven spring rush and the STATEC hedonic price index falling 3.1% quarter-on-quarter, according to the Housing Observatory.
• The European Central Bank held interest rates steady today, for its fourth meeting in a row but was tight-lipped on the future rate path as it stressed lingering geopolitical uncertainty.
  ECB President Christine Lagarde said tumult around the borders of Europe as well as the impacts of trade tensions meant it was impossible to issue guidance for the future.
• UK teachers will be trained to tackle misogyny in the classroom under a new strategy aimed at halving violence against women and girls over the next decade, a minister has announced to parliament.
• The ACL is warning that over-reliance of driving assistant technology in cars has led to a decline in fundamental driving skills.

On air

The often terrifying world of Icelandic folklore, with an emphasis on the the 13 Yule Lads, who are brothers from a family of trolls who live in the highlands of Iceland.

Figure of the day

Police confiscate 7,500 pairs of counterfeit trainers on A6 motorway

• Officers stopped a lorry on the A6 motorway at around 11.20am for breaching the Sunday traffic ban for heavy goods vehicles, whereupon they discovered around 7,500 pairs of suspected counterfeit trainers of various brands on board. These were seized on orders from the public prosecutor’s office.
• A report has been filed and an investigation is underway.

Stay connected: tune in to RTL Today Radio, now on DAB+, and follow the latest news as it unfolds on our website.