Ambassador’s Matinee: Luxembourg

Thursday 14. May 18:00 - 19:15
Location: DGAP, Berlin

 

Do the Luxembourgers consider themselves as good Europeans? Did the statements made by the federal finance minister Peer Steinbrück damage the relations between Germany and Luxembourg? How successful is the co-existence of different cultures in Luxembourg? These and other questions were discussed by the moderator of the ambassador’s matinee, Sabine Porn from Inforadio rbb and their guests. The guests of this meeting were the ambassador of Luxembourg, Martine Schommer, Ulrike Höfken, member of Alliance 90/ The Greens and the German-Luxembourgian group of parliament members in the federal parliament as well as Luc Woff, artist and holder of a delicatessen shop in Berlin. The meeting took place on 14th May 2009 in the premises of DGAP in the context of the monthly “Ambassador’s matinee”.

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“Luxembourgers are probably the most enthusiastic Europeans”, stated Luc Woff. The multi-cultural society of Luxembourg in which three national languages were spoken contributed to the fact that the people felt European since most of them are commuting between Luxembourg, Germany, Belgium and France every day. Luxembourg was not only a small country which had its place in the European Union; instead the European Union had a prominent position and influence in the small Benelux country. This was confirmed by the ambassador’s statement that approximately 80 per cent of the laws are drafted in Brussels.

This could also be observed in the context of the discussion about the banking confidentiality: The correspondent European directive concerning the bank confidentiality of Luxembourg had been recognized by the rest of the member states. The way how Peer Steinbrück had criticised Luxembourg was not appropriate and this was beyond debate, stated Ulrike Höfken. The Luxembourgers, however, initiated a discussion concerning the critical statements and were willing to adopt amendments to banking laws regarding to the exchange of data. The most important aspect in this context was that no old resentments are generated, Schommer declared. She said, however, that discussions about implementation and design about a possible exchange of data would calm the waves.

The multi-cultural society in Luxembourg could not serve as an example of integration, since there was no cultural exchange taking place in the border regions to Germany, Belgium and France, Ulrike Höfken said.

However, the immigrants had integrated very well in the state itself despite the language barrier. This could also be recognized by the fact that Luxembourgian had become the main language of immigrants who were living in Luxembourg for the second or third generation, Höfken said. This could be a huge contribution to the identity-building of the still relatively young country of Luxembourg, stated the ambassador.

Since January 2007, Inforadio Berlin-Brandenburg records the program „Weltsichten. Inforadio ganz international – Die Botschaftermatinee“ which takes place at the location of DGAP. Once a month, Sabine Porn welcomes a German-speaking ambassador of a country as well as two further guests and talks about the country and its people, politics, culture and history. The next event will take place on Thursday, June 11th, with the participation of the ambassador of Slovakia.

The current program will be broadcasted on Sunday, May 24th at 11.06 a.m. on Inforadio RBB. For further information: www.inforadio.de.