Editorial – Preaching proximity to citizens, preventing access to files

This article is provided to you free of charge. If you want to support our team, take out a subscription now.

You've probably never heard of Bergen an der Dumme. But a few clicks are all it takes to find the 150-page budget plans of this German municipality of 1.400 souls for 2024 and 2025 online.

In contrast, the search for budget documents in Luxembourg's municipal and local authority landscape is much more difficult. A naturally non-representative small sample shows: It is true that detailed accounting documents can be tracked down from time to time. However, in many cases, the search leads to letters of convocation from local councils, more or less detailed local council meeting reports or "Gemengebueten", which have to be searched individually to find, at best, rough key data.

Yet, the 2018 law on "transparent and open administration" clearly obliges public bodies (administrations, state services, municipalities, associations of municipalities or bodies governed by public law) to publish accessible documents digitally. In practice, however, transparency is often the exception – not the rule.