Yearbook 2017
Luxembourg. According to Countryaah.com, Luxembourg’s Minister of Infrastructure François Bausch announced in January that a legal process will be pursued against the Volkswagen car ticket following the so-called diesel street scandal in 2015, which revealed cheating with the cars’ diesel engines.
Two French whistle-blowers (Antoine Deltour and Raphael Halet) in the so-called Luxleaks business in 2014 had their sentences mitigated. Deltour was sentenced, from 12 months in prison, to six months in prison and Halet escaped in prison for nine months. They were both convicted of stealing and leaking documents from the PWC audit firm. These documents showed that Luxembourg has given over 300 large companies favorable tax treaties.
Luxembourg, the richest country in the EU, emerged during the year in connection with discussions on where the UK’s banks should take the road when implementing Brexit. According to Bloomberg News Agency, multilingualism and the high level of education and cheap airline tickets to London speak for a move there. What speaks against is a problematic traffic situation. Luxembourg was also one of the countries that showed interest in taking over the EU’s banking authority EBA when moving from London in connection with the EU exit. However, it was Paris who got the honor to take over EBA.
