Cabinet Approves Horticultural Exhibition, Discusses African Swine Fever Preventative Measures

On Wednesday afternoon, the Luxembourg Cabinet approved the organisation of a national horticultural exhibition in Luxembourg City in 2023.

The Cabinet meeting, under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Xavier Bettel, made an inventory regarding African swine fever, before approving the organisation of the new horticultural exhibition (known as LUGA 2023) and the draft Grand-Ducal Regulation concerning the issue of a collector's item dedicated to the Château de Bourglinster. 

Concerning African swine fever, Minister of Agriculture, Viticulture and Rural Development Romain Schneider and Minister for the Environment, Climate and Sustainable Development Carole Dieschbourg briefed the Cabinet on the preventative measures taken. These included the implementation of a surveillance zone bounded on the north by the A6 motorway from Steinfort to Luxembourg, on the east by the A4 from Luxembourg to Esch-sur-Alzette and by the Belgian and French borders, as well as the obligation to confine domestic pigs in the surveillance zone and the installation of an eight-kilometre fence along the cycling path south of Steinfort, planned in the coming days. In addition, wild boar hunting will be exceptionally allowed throughout the year in the forests located in the surveillance zone. The ministers pointed out that all the results of the 131 tests carried out at the State Veterinary Medicine Laboratory (LMVE) on the corpses wild boars were negative for African swine fever. As such, there have been no such cases detected in Luxembourg to date. Moreover, the Luxembourg authorities are in close and permanent contact with European, Belgian and French authorities in order to stop the spread of this virus. 

During the Cabinet meeting, the ministers also approved the statement of general obligation of the collective labour agreement for employees of the groundhandling industry at airports and the declaration of general obligation of the agreement of 24 December 2018 concerning an amendment to the collective labour agreement for employees of the sector of Aid and Care and the social sector (CCT SAS), signed on 22 August 2017 and modified on 9 February 2018. They also agreed with the declaration of general obligation of addendum XVI to the collective building agreement.

Finally, the ministers approved the appointments of Agnès Durdu as President and Patrick Santer as Vice-President of the Cabinet, as well as the reappointment of Romain Nati to the post of Vice-President.