Luxembourg’s parliamentary lobby register was overhauled in 2025 in a major victory for transparency campaigners, but the year also saw the country continue to face criticism from the EU over improving access to official documents.
From mid-September, stricter requirements governing meetings between elected members of Luxembourg’s parliament and lobbyists took effect, bringing obligations on the Chamber of Deputies in line with those already in place for ministers and civil servants.
The changes came after parliament unanimously approved a revamp of the register during a vote in June, following a year-long review of what was described as a “phone book” by Sven Clement of the Pirate Party. Clement’s initial 2019 proposal for a lobby register was much watered down before rules were adopted two years later.
The original register, made available on the parliament’s website, named hundreds of companies and individuals but provided no information when any meetings took place, how often, or with which politicians.
In a report in April, the Chamber’s Conference of Presidents – a group comprising the parliament’s president plus the chairs of each political faction – concluded it was time for an overhaul of the current register, based on the first report to assess the effectiveness of the system since it was introduced in 2021.
Prior to the changes introduced in September, a name being listed did not even mean a meeting had taken place, but simply that there was an intention to meet, while lobbyists were informed that signing up was “their own responsibility”, and they were allowed to de-register at any time.
Stricter rules for deputies
Under the revamped register, deputies now have to record the time and place of any organised meeting they have held with people who could be considered to have an influence or an interest in a particular piece of legislation, as well as the subjects which were discussed.
Deputies must provide parliament with the information within 15 days of the meeting – regardless of whether it took place in person or via video link – and the details are to be published online within six weeks.
There is no transparency register covering local councillors across Luxembourg, but Home Affairs Minister Léon Gloden said in June that he is working on introducing similar legislation for councils.
Home Affairs Minister Léon Gloden said earlier this year that he is working on introducing legislation on a transparency register for local councils across Luxembourg © Photo credit: Christophe Olinger
For government ministers and civil servants, there are two separate lobby registers, one which outlines meetings between ministers and outside organisations and another that provides a list of lobbyists’ meetings with senior civil servants.
Around a quarter of all meetings held by government ministers in the period from January to the end of July concerned the country’s housing sector, which had already dominated the agenda of ministers’ interactions with outside organisations last year, the coalition’s first full year in government.
Several Luxembourg political parties publish their own records of meetings with external groups or individuals, including both of the governing coalition parties, the DP and the CSV. However, the CSV register has not been updated since the last election in October 2023 which saw the party return to power.
Big tech lobbyists
A list of meetings published by the Green Party showed that big tech giant Meta held a meeting with a former government minister about the country’s regulations on artificial intelligence and approach to tech rules.
Meta, the operator of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, met with former environment minister and current Green deputy Joëlle Welfring at the end of last year. The meeting covered European legislation, such as the AI Act adopted by the bloc in 2024, and the Luxembourg government’s “general approach to tech regulation”, Welfring told the Luxembourg Times in June.
In a report in July, the European Commission welcomed the “significant progress” regarding the parliament’s lobby register, but repeated criticism about access to official documents in Luxembourg contained in previous years in its annual rule of law report.
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Luxembourg must implement reforms first announced two years ago to improve access to official documents and bring the country’s framework in line with European standards, the commission said.
Access to documents
Luxembourg was one of the last EU states to pass a document access law, but the result allowed many restrictions that make obtaining files difficult.
For example, the law excludes access to data or papers not officially marked as government documents.
Under plans announced by then Prime Minister Xavier Bettel in the summer of 2023, before he left office later that year, amended legislation would make it compulsory for ministries and other state agencies to make requested documents accessible to journalists through the country’s Commission on Access to Documents.
The commission, which judges whether government documents should be made available in response to a request, currently has only advisory status.
The draft law on strengthening journalists’ – and the wider public’s – access was presented last July by the new coalition government, but is still working its way through parliament.