Luxembourg’s continuous strong economic growth has considerable effects on:

As a response to the aforementioned social and economic dynamics, four major planning instruments, affecting cities in particular, were developed over the past decade:

Three principal urban areas can be found in the Grand Duchy: the monocentric agglomeration of the capital and the two rather polycentric agglomerations of the former mining basin in the south (encompassing the cities of Esch/Alzette, Differdange, Dudelange) and the Nordstad in the north (cities/municipalities of Ettelbruck, Diekirch, Colmar/Berg, Erpeldange, Schieren, Bettendorf). Most of the country’s population lives in urban areas. The largest cities are: Luxembourg-City (76,400 inhabitants), Esch/Alzette (28,000 inhabitants), Differdange (19,000 inhabitants) and Dudelange (17,600 inhabitants). The urban system is dominated by the four latter southern cities.

The neighbouring cantons of Luxembourg-City and Esch/Alzette together constitute the ‘functional urban region’ of Luxembourg-City. This urban region contains 267,000 inhabitants (about 55% of the national population on 18% of the territory).

Luxembourg-City is the country’s major centre of development and attraction. Apart from being the capital of the Grand Duchy, it is also the location of numerous national and international companies as well as EU institutions. The capital thus offers jobs not only to the majority of the national population but also to many people from neighbouring regions in France, Germany and Belgium. Since the 1980s national as well as cross-border commuting between place of residence and place of work has contributed to a dynamic though unbalanced development of Luxembourg’s cities. Whereas the population of the capital has barely increased since the 1970s, the population of the canton of Luxembourg has done so by 90%. Problems arising from this development are mainly related to transport, environmental pollution and loss in quality of life.

The following key actors are involved in national urban planning:

During the last few years the interministerial collaboration has been reinforced. Parts of it have been delegated to the various working groups established for the elaboration of sectoral plans.

Luxembourg’s local authorities are granted municipal autonomy by the Constitution and the urban development of their territory is within their fields of competence. However, the Minister of the Interior, having the administrative guardianship over local authorities, approves or disapproves municipal urban development plans (PAG – Plan d’Aménagement Général), following the appraisal of the Spatial Planning Commission (Commission d’Aménagement).

Luxembourgish municipalities are generally rather small. In view of this fact many of them struggle when assuming their municipal duties. Many small municipalities have to align with other municipalities in so-called syndicated (Syndicats de communes) in order to provide efficient as well as economically viable services and infrastructures to their citizens.

In the last years, three new actors, resulting from the cooperation between municipalities, are becoming active in the sphere of urban policy: the NORDSTAD, urban agglomeration of six municipalities in the north of Luxembourg, the DICI (five municipalities in the south west of the agglomeration of Luxembourg City) and the Alzette Valley Convention area (five municipalities in the north of the agglomeration of Luxembourg City). These three networks of cities have signed a Convention with the Ministry of the Interior and Spatial Planning, aiming at the coordination and the integration of the territorial development of the municipalities involved.

Another regional actor is the PRO-SUD, a syndicate which involves twelve municipalities from the south of Luxembourg. The aim of PRO-SUD is to establish a stable structure for better regional cooperation and to contribute to the elaboration and the implementation of a regional plan for southern Luxembourg.

At the national level, the Ministry of the Interior and Spatial Development promotes a sustainable urban development policy at each level of spatial development and in all sectoral policy strategies having an impact on urban development. The urban development objectives in the Programme Directeur d’Aménagement du Territoire 2003 read as follows:

The current overarching theme in Luxembourg’s urban policy is the implementation of integrated approaches in urban development. In this respect, integration has a twofold meaning: first, there should be a thematic or sectoral integration, e.g. by bringing settlement development and local public transport closer together while, at the same time, fostering mixed-use developments. Second, planning processes should be interactive, involving not only the respective administrations but also the private sector and citizens.

In the south of Luxembourg, the former stronghold of the country’s steel industry, the revitalisation of brownfields is of major importance. The mixed-use redevelopment of ‘Belval-Ouest’, which will be the home of a Science, Research and Technology City as well as of the University of Luxembourg, is considered to be a flagship project in this field. The re-use of land is also relevant to ease the development pressure on the city of Luxembourg, to reduce urban sprawl and to encourage a polycentric development.

The growing importance of urban policy issues in Luxembourg has led to the creation of a national Information Unit for Urban Policy (CIPU – Cellule nationale d’Information pour la Politique Urbaine) in July 2008. The CIPU’s aim is to assure and coordinate the collaboration between national and European urban stakeholders by means of networks, databases and exchanges of knowledge. Moreover the CIPU serves as national Focal Point for EUKN and Contact Point for URBACT, a European programme for sustainable urban development.

The following two documents constitute the framework for the country’s spatial development in general while also referring to urban development in particular:

In addition to these key programmes, the national government has set up several funds to solve specific urban problems and/or to promote a more sustainable urban development. Two of these funds address specific problems of the city of Luxembourg: the Fund for the Urban Development of the Kirchberg Plateau (Fonds d’Urbanisation et d’Aménagement du Plateau du Kirchberg) and the Fund for the Regeneration of the Capital’s Old Town (Fonds de Rénovation de la Vieille Ville). Two more funds focus rather on the promotion of the so-called “concentrated deconcentration”: the fund Belval (Fonds Belval) in order to further the creation of a Science, Research and Technology City in the south and the project of a NORDSTAD fund aiming at supporting the development of a “critical mass” for housing, economic activities and public transport in the network the NORDSTAD partner municipalities in northern Luxembourg (still to be established). Lastly, the Fund for Affordable Housing (Fonds du Logement together with the Société Nationale des Habitations à Bon Marché) aims at providing cheaper housing for specific low-income groups.