OECD Regulatory Policy Outlook 2025

Luxembourg has experienced some deteriorations in regulatory policy over the past three years. As foreseen by the “Omnibus” law, formal consultations with advisory groups or preparatory committees originally took place before 2021, but more recently such consultations are not taking place. Leveraging opportunities for stakeholder engagement and facilitating avenues for the general public to provide feedback on proposed regulatory drafts, would contribute to strengthen Luxembourg’s rule-making process. Stakeholder engagement for developing both primary laws and subordinate regulations currently remains limited to formal consultation with professional groups, with open consultations on two websites: www.legilux.lu and www.chd.lu.

In the past three years, no ex post evaluations of existing regulations have been undertaken in Luxembourg, a departure from the previous period during which some ex post evaluations were carried out on an ad hoc basis in areas such as sustainable development. Establishing and embedding an ex post evaluation framework, including a clear methodology, could help to ensure that rules continue to provide community benefits.

In Luxembourg, regulatory impact assessment (RIA) takes the form of a checklist that is undertaken for all rules. While Luxembourg refers to the European Commission guidance material rather than creating its own, the limited current focus of RIA in Luxembourg does not reflect those standards. To enhance the usefulness of RIA, the analysis included in impact assessments could be more thorough and further extend to other types of costs, impacts and benefits of regulations.

Since November 2023, there is no longer an explicit oversight body in charge of promotion or guidance on regulatory policy or regulatory reform as the current governmental program is focused on administrative simplification via digitalisation across all domains and ministries. These functions were previously under the purview of the Ministry of Digitalisation, which had taken over some competences of the Ministry of the Civil Service and Administrative Reform. In parallel, the Council of State provides opinions on whether proposed primary laws comply with the existing regulatory framework.