Chamber of Deputies President Reflects on 2020 Challenges, Solidarity

Earlier this week, Fernand Etgen, President of Luxembourg's Chamber of Deputies (Parliament), and Laurent Scheeck, Secretary General, delivered their traditional New Year's message, this year in the form of a video message due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In his review of the past year, Chamber President Fernand Etgen described 2020 as an "endurance test", although he also highlighted positive developments linked to solidarity. He emphasised that the Chamber's main goal last year was to overcome the coronavirus crisis and recalled that such crises often present challenges to democracy.

Secretary General Laurent Scheeck added that the Chamber had also committed itself to "do[ing] everything in its power to allow Parliament to continue in all its functions" over the past year. He reflected on the "trustworthy institutional collaboration" with the Government Council in 2020 and emphasised that dialogue had been and remained key to "rapid and goal-oriented work" during a crisis. Fernand Etgen was in agreement, stressing that the Luxembourg model is "built on mutual listening".

That being said, the Secretary General recalled that crises also revealed areas of improvement. He took the specific examples of administrative simplification and internal communication. Among his main priorities for 2021 were digitalisation and cooperation. The Chamber President also cited digitalisation as one of his priorities, as well as highlighting the fact that "strengthening the administration of the Chamber of Deputies means strengthening our democracy".

Fernand Etgen then turned his attention to the major and persisting challenges of sustainability, climate change and the ecological transition, which "will continue to be a major issue in the future and more than ever".

The Chamber President also summarised the Chamber's non-COVID-19-related agenda for 2021, which will include the reform of its rules and the continuation of the constitutional reform. This month's plenary sessions feature several major debates, although the economic consequences of the coronavirus crisis as well as the functioning of the healthcare system remained the top priorities. 

Fernand Etgen concluded that everyone should be "proud of great discipline and solidarity" shown over the past year and "proud of the way the Chamber has functioned and created acceptance among the people for the [COVID-19] measures".