The key challenges the future government will have to deal with

To ensure Luxembourg's future prosperity, UEL is working to develop sustainable talents, through a close cooperation with all key stakeholders, including political parties.

The current international context and deteriorating economic situation underline our structural issues. These include our pace of innovation in fast-changing markets; the need to accelerate our digital, energy and environmental transitions; the strains on our infrastructure and public services; the deterioration of our public finances and social security funding; the lack of affordable housing; and the shortage of qualified labour.

This last challenge stands out in particular because all the others revolve around it. For the UEL, the absolute priority should be our country's ability to attract, train and mobilise tomorrow’s sustainable talents. The individual talent of managers and employees, entrepreneurs and investors. The collective talent of companies creating tomorrow's wealth. Our distinctive team talent in public-private partnerships. All these talents should be sustainable in the sense that they are committed, evolutive, and contribute to the overall transition towards sustainable development.

A particular focus on talent

Focusing on talent in particular creates a domino effect: without the right talent pool to remain competitive, companies cannot attract private capital to invest in innovation. Nor can they make profits and pay taxes and social security contributions. If tax revenues decrease, our State must spend less on public services or risk losing our AAA rating, and therefore our ability to invest for the future.

STATEC projects that we need to create 70,000 jobs over the next five years to finance the welfare state. This in turn requires available housing, efficient infrastructure and mobility services, but also excellent education and innovation facilities, an attractive tax and legal framework, and everything that contributes to the quality of life we all aspire to.

Instead of trying to solve different issues separately, we need to adopt a systemic approach. In this spirit, UEL, as the voice of Luxembourg’s employers, has provided a series of recommendations to the Grand-Duchy’s main political parties, as they prepare their 2023 campaign programmes.

What is your message to your fellow citizens?

I’m optimistic by nature: despite the challenges, I believe we can safeguard our prosperous way of life… if we embrace change. That is the true meaning of “Mir wëlle bleiwe wat mir sinn” or “We want to stay who we are”: this popular motto may sound reactionary but it comes from a song celebrating innovation, written by Michel Lentz when the first train came to Luxembourg. Sticking to our values means being inventive, hard-working, open to learning new talents and welcoming others.

Taking into account our country’s - and our planet’s - limited resources, we must invent a new model for sustainable prosperity with human talent at its heart. Luxembourgers should expect their political leaders to develop a sustainable vision for the next five, ten, and even thirty years.

Given our role as European co-founders, we should also continue to value the importance of European integration: closer integration between European countries, integration of Europe with the rest of the world, and better integration of our fellow Europeans in Luxembourg’s public life.

With sustainable talents, let’s make it happen!