Luxembourg Celebrates 65 Years of Free Movement in BeNeLux

An official ceremony took place in Place d’Armes in Luxembourg-Ville on BeNeLux Day, Friday 5 September 2025.

This occasion marked 65 years of the free movement of persons in the BeNeLux, officially operational since the 1960 BeNeLux Agreement - a historic achievement that remains at the heart of cooperation between Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.

The ceremony was held in Luxembourg city centre on Friday morning, in the presence of Xavier Bettel, Chairman of the BeNeLux Committee of Ministers and Luxembourg’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, as well as Frans Weekers, BeNeLux Secretary General, and Maurice Bauer, First Alderman of the City of Luxembourg (Ville de Luxembourg - VdL). The agenda included speeches and a reception with music by Douane's Musek (Luxembourg) in collaboration with the Harmonie Royale des Finances (Belgium).

The BeNeLux Union is an intergovernmental cooperation framework that began as a Customs Agreement signed in 1944. The tripartite union has grown out of a long history of cooperation between the three countries. The customs union later became the BeNeLux Economic Union in 1958, with the relevant treaty entering into force in 1960. 50 years later, in 2008, the three countries signed a new BeNeLux Treaty, which remains in force today. Current cooperation focuses on three main areas: the internal market and economic union; sustainable development; justice and home affairs.

Speaking to Chronicle.lu about BeNeLux cooperation, Xavier Bettel said the three partners were “very like-minded very often,” thus making it “less complicated to move on some topics.” He described BeNeLux as a “laboratory,” adding: “Sometimes we dare to do things where the others will follow.” He recalled that Schengen came “much later” than the free movement of persons introduced in the BeNeLux. Another innovative topic was roaming: “We wanted to start initiatives on roaming before Europe [the EU] started initiatives on roaming. So we always try to move on on different topics, and we have the presidency for the moment.”

Luxembourg assumed the Presidency of the BeNeLux Union on 30 January 2025. Its key priorities centre on progress and prosperity through integration and innovation, promoting cooperation with neighbouring regions, and ensuring the protection and security of citizens.

“I just came back from Ukraine and Moldova, where I was with my colleagues from the BeNeLux, and I think it's a strength,” shared Minister Bettel. “And to be coordinated makes us also stronger when we sit in Brussels in meetings.”

Regarding the future of free movement, he said: “For some countries, the solution for the moment is to do controls. We see that between Luxembourg and Belgium, for example, where we have a direct border with a BeNeLux country, there are no controls. And during the COVID period, a lot of countries even closed the border, so it was difficult to get in the country. People […] thought that to close the border was a way to stop the virus. That's so stupid. And to think that we will stop violence and terrorism and troubles with the border controls is a wrong message.”

Instead, he advocated “well-controlled” external European borders: “Then we wouldn't leave to the populists the possibility even to give to people the impression that they are right. But we need external border controls and common rules that really function."