Luxembourg Minister for Sustainable Development and Infrastructure, François Bausch, has said his Ministry will fully comply with the Administrative Court’s decision this Wednesday upholding the decision of the lower court putting a hold on plans for a refugee centre at Steinfort until environmental impact studies are completed, but that the judgement does not fundamentally jeopardise the realisation of the an urbanisation project on the site.

The Minister isssued a statement last night saying that it was important to await the final judgment in the case in order to have legal certainty on the environmental impacts, particularly in the context of other planned urbanisation cases. 

Initiated in 2015, the refugee centre was to be part of the government’s response to the growing refugee crisis, and similar sites are planned for Diekirch, Junglinster and Mamer. The courts held that the Ministry had exceeded its margin of appreciation by deciding in November 2015 not to conduct an environmental study on the site under the land use plan. 

The plans were challenged by a civil group which asserted that a protected species, the greater mouse-eared bat, was present in the area around the planned site for the refugee centres. 

The Ministry said they will submit a proposal to the Governing Council for cancellation of the land use plan and continue a detailed analysis on the site concerned.