Dear AmCham members, partners and friends,
Welcome to your 206th edition of the AmCham.lu digital newsletter! We hope you will enjoy reading and thank you for this opportunity to serve and support you!
Last Tuesday evening, bringing the two-day AmCham EU annual conference to a close in Brussels, I was pleased to join the AmCham EU Chairman’s VIP dinner where the US Ambassador to the EU, Andrew Puzder, gave a positive and very comprehensive update on US/EU relations and the challenges we collectively face together throughout the world. I am very pleased the Ambassador has given me permission and a copy of his speech to share with you. Enjoy reading this speech which we have published in place of our normal weekly interview.
Last Wednesday evening Daniel McKenzie and I joined some of you all along with other attendees from the British, Irish, Romanian, Polish and Ukrainian Chambers of Commerce for an excellent expat-focused event at Cercle Cité chaired by the British Chamber of Commerce President Andrew Notter and moderated by LuxTimes editor Cordula Schnuer. The theme of the event was the attractiveness of Luxembourg viewed principally through the lens of employees and employers. Following a keynote address by Minister for Home Affairs Léon Gloden, and a short fireside chat about expat recruitment, Cordula led an interesting panel discussion featuring Minister Gloden, Luxembourg City Mayor Lydie Polfer, long term Luxembourg City Alderman Laurent Mosar, and other speakers representing the restaurant sector and City of Esch. The discussions were lively but did not produce any consensus of new initiatives. Interestingly, a majority of attendees, by raise of hands, indicated that they were concerned about security and thought the situation had worsened over time. During the cocktail reception following the event, many people commented that while Luxembourg was working commendably hard promoting integration between the foreign and native Luxembourg residents, there is a rising threat caused by criminal gangs and what appear and are suspected to be illegal non-working persons with criminal intent, which is not sufficiently mitigated by the criminal justice system and therefore increasingly impacts the legally resident legitimately working and retired inhabitants, both native Luxembourgers and foreign in origin alike.
I spent quite considerable time on Thursday and Friday writing and sending to the six Luxembourg MEPs advocacy documents explaining and encouraging them to positively vote for the ratification of the Turnberry agreement agreed by the EU President, Ursula von der Leyen and President Trump during their 2025 July meeting in Scotland. This draft agreement has just come out of committee and moves towards an approval vote in the European Parliament in Strasbourg in the very near future.
As every week, we are posting other interesting business and event news and a great make-at-home food recipe offered to us and our readers by Bibi Wintersdorf and her team at Kachen.lu. Enjoy!
The AmCham team and I always appreciate your feedback and encourage you to contact me with questions, comments and suggestions by writing to me at: Paul@amcham.lu
My respect and kindest regards,
Paul Schonenberg
Chairman and CEO
AmCham.lu