Luxembourg Finance Minister Pierre Gramegna was in Norway this week for meetings with his Norwegian counterpart, Siv Jensen, as well as senior officials of the Central Bank, sovereign wealth fund and private companies. Much of the discussions focused on Brexit, and also on Luxembourg’s drive for fiscal transparency and the implementation of BEPS and the need to respect the level playing field principle at global level.
In this regard, the two finance ministers agreed to an update of the tax treaty between the two countries to take account of latest developments in this area.
On 15 May, Minister Gramegna was in Sweden for a meeting with his Swedish and Dutch counterparts Magdalena Andersson and Jeroen Dijsselbloem and an exchange of views on current European issues.
On 16 May, he gave the opening speech of the seminar that Luxembourg for Finance (LFF) organised for the benefit of professionals in the Swedish financial sector. This year's edition focused particularly on the topic of responsible finance and gained even greater popularity with the local public than the previous edition of 2015.
The Minister of Finance then visited the Stockholm Fintech Hub and met with entrepreneurs who settled there. The minister commented "The philosophy and spirit of Stockholm Fintech Hub are quite similar to those of LHoFT. We therefore agreed to set up a privileged partnership to encourage exchanges, including at the start-up level, between Luxembourg and Stockholm".
Minister Gramegna also had interviews with executives of financial institutions, including EQT Partners AB. Indeed, this manager specialising in hedge funds decided, in the context of the Brexit, to gradually consolidate all its funds in Luxembourg and to strengthen its presence there.
