In case you missed them, The Luxembourg Times has selected the best stories of the week for you
Luxembourg awarded more controversial tax rulings last year than in 2020, continuing a practice that has exposed it to a series of high-profile legal battles even as it contests its reputation as a tax haven for multinationals.
The country handed out 58 such tailor-made deals, in which the tax office in advance lays out the rules a company needs to follow and which rates apply, up from 44 a year earlier, the ministry's annual report showed.
Such deals were at the core of the LuxLeaks scandal in 2014, when a journalistic investigation revealed the Grand Duchy had given hundreds of large multinational companies preferential treatment out of the sight of the public, under the reign of former Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker.
Dieschbourg resigns over building permit investigation
Environment Minister Carole Dieschbourg resigned from her post on Friday morning, after the public prosecutor's office requested that parliament lift her immunity in an investigation into the approval of a building permit granted to a fellow party member in 2019.
Dieschbourg has denied any wrongdoing in relation to the granting of the permit to the former mayor of Differdange, fellow Green Party politician Roberto Traversini, over a garden shed he built in 2019, and re-iterated that denial on Friday.
A minister offering their resignation following a scandal, common in other countries such as Germany, is a rare occurrence in Luxembourg. Prime Minister Xavier Bettel brushed off criticism earlier this year when a journalistic exposé revealed that he had plagiarised the vast majority of his thesis. Bettel, who asked the University of Nancy to rescind his postgraduate degree following the reports, continued in his post despite anger from opposition parties.
Property firms named and shamed over dirty money compliance
More than 40 real estate companies have been named and shamed by Luxembourg's Finance Ministry for failing to provide information on their compliance with anti-money laundering rules, ahead of an inspection by the global watchdog later this year.
The Registration Duties, Estates and VAT Authority (AED), a department at the finance ministry, took the unusual step of singling out the 41 firms in a statement published online on the department's website on Thursday.
The department said the companies listed had failed to provide written evidence and return mandatory questionnaires on anti-money laundering procedures, which were originally issued last August. The firms had also ignored two reminders sent in January and March this year, the AED said.
Luxembourger to help EU gain control of cybersecurity
Luxembourger Pascal Steichen will oversee European Union efforts to take control of its own cybersecurity defences and cut the use of foreign software to make it harder for malicious actors to break in to computers in the bloc.
The European Cybersecurity Competence Centre (ECCC) chose the 46-year old as its president in February, putting him in charge of the organisation, which is establishing its headquarters in Bucharest ahead of a 2023 launch.