Thierry Lagoda, president of the Syndicat "De Réidener Kanton"; Claude Turmes, Minister for Regional Development; Credit: DATer

On Thursday 12 May 2022, Luxembourg's Minister for Spatial Planning, Claude Turmes, signed a territorial cooperation agreement between the State and the Redange canton ("De Réidener Kanton") which brings together the municipalities of Beckerich, Ell, Grosbous, Preizerdaul, Rambrouch, Redingen, Saeul, Useldingen, Vichten and Wahl.

Signing this agreement is particularly close to my heart: it supports the tremendous work of the Réidener Kanton and its efforts to bring life back to a classified rural area by upgrading its village cores and improving the quality of life of its inhabitants. It is a question of ensuring that our villages become attractive villages again while meeting the legitimate needs and expectations of its inhabitants. The objective is to maintain the character of our villages by allowing them to remain villages that are up to the challenges and challenges of the 21st century,” underlined Minister Turmes.

Objectives of the agreement

Running from the day of signature until 31 December 2026, the agreement has, among other things, the following key objectives:

  • enhance the attractiveness of the canton of Redange by improving the living conditions and quality of life of its population;
  • to preserve the traditional activities of the canton according to its agricultural, artisanal, commercial vocation as well as to promote its development in the economic, social, cultural, educational and tourist fields, all while respecting the existing natural and built environment and within the framework a land-use planning policy implemented at national, regional and municipal levels;
  • participate and cooperate in any initiative of a public or private nature aimed at carrying out the aforementioned activities.

These objectives are part of the strategic orientations of the Master Programme for Territorial Development (Programme directeur d’aménagement du territoire - PDAT) promoting polycentrism and concentrated deconcentration and thus supports a revaluation of village cores in rural areas through a policy of encouragement to establish basic services there. In fact, the PDAT classifies the canton of Redange as an “area to be developed in rural areas” and defines the municipality of Redange as a regional centre of development and attraction (centre de développement et d’attraction - CDA). With its 268 km2, representing 10.3% of the surface of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, the canton currently has significant land potential and has some 20,000 inhabitants, which is equivalent to 3.1% of the total population, and approximately 7,300 jobs, representing 1.5% of the country's total employment.

Territorial vision

In order to achieve the objectives set, a multi-annual work programme will be drawn up by the stakeholders with a view to drawing up a common development strategy (territorial vision "De Réidener Kanton" by 2035), implementing concrete projects accompanied by awareness-raising and communication actions. The “De Réidener Kanton” territorial vision will have to respond to the specificities of the challenges and issues and thus propose an operational territorial development strategy taking into account the potentials and characteristics specific to this territory.