Meeting of the Forums Committee

On September 25th the third meeting of the year of the Forums Committee, a working group whose mission is to propose, organize and monitor the events organized by the Chamber, was organized telematically.

During the meeting, which was chaired by Pablo López Álvarez (FTI Consulting), a balance of the latest events organized by the “business circle” platform was made as well as new initiatives were proposed to be developed in the coming months, both locally and with the institutions of the European Union. Likewise, the activities carried out and the events planned within the framework of the Spanish Financial Forum and Competencia España Committees were discussed. Finally, the call for the 2020 Company of the Year Award, which is currently open, was discussed.

About the Chamber’s Committees

The Committees are made up by some of the members, as well as by the person in charge of the area in question in the Chamber.

These working groups have numerous functions: in-depth studies of proposals, problems, projects, and activities. Through them, the members influence the day-to-day life of the Chamber in order to better adapt the Chamber’s activities to the needs of the members.

At any time, a member can request the president of a Commission to join it or request the secretary general to create a new group.

ICT Spring Europe 2020

On the 5th edition of the international event ICT Spring Europe 2020, that will take place on the September 15th and 16th in Luxembourg, the Chamber will, once again, be an official partner.

The aim of ICT Spring Europe, as an influential voice in the global technology community, is to encourage networking among business decision makers, innovation managers, start-ups, researchers and venture capitalists at European level. The event will take place at the European Convention Center, will feature high level international speakers, and will highlight the latest trends and technological innovations, as well as reflect on their impact on society and the business community.

In order to adapt to international health safety measures, this year the participation in the event will be either face to face or virtual, and the fees have been adapted to support SMEs and Startups.

Thanks to the good collaboration of the Chamber of Commerce with the organisers of ICT Spring, they will  offer a free of charge participation for foreign visiting companies in the digital edition of the event, including access to conferences and networking. Companies who are interested are requested to send us an email to ictspring@cc.lu  while putting luxemburgo@e-camara.com  in copy to receive their free of charge ticket code.

In addition, a preferential rate of 300 euros is offered to those startups interested in having a digital exhibition space during the event, and a preferential rate of 1.250 euros is offered to companies.

More information on the event’s program: https://www.ictspring.com

New edition of our “Guía del Emprendedor en Luxemburgo”

Within the framework of the EmprendeBelux programme, the Chamber has just launched an updated version of our “Guía del Emprendedor en Luxemburgo” (Enterpreneur’s guide in Luxembourg), the reference publication in Spanish for anyone interested in starting a business in the Grand Duchy. It is free to download and is accessible in digital format via the EmprendeBelux site.

This updated version includes detailed information on the most common questions raised by future entrepreneurs, and the information about the different procedures required to open a company is broaden (authorisation of establishment, administrative procedures, etc). There is also a section devoted to company taxation, including a summary of the main taxes applicable in Luxembourg. In addition, the guide has a directory of local business and organizations that support entrepreneurship.

The publication is supported by the Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce and the House of Entrepreneurship.

You can download the guide HERE

More information: luxemburgo@e-camara.com

Comercial opportunities in Belgium and Luxembourg after COVID-19

COVID-19 has had a very different impact in Belgium and Luxembourg marked by a light lockdown and strong determination by public administration to support its business and protect employment. This health crisis has been without any doubt a mayor disruptive factor that highlighted some existing tendencies already putting in place in both markets. That is why, despite the limited uncertainty, some opportunity window seem to be opening in the next months in Belgium and Luxembourg in the upcoming months making them two very interesting destinations for internationalization strategies for Spanish companies.

In this context, the Chamber has developed a series of collaborations with various Spanish territorial chambers to present the Belgian and Luxembourg markets to Spanish companies. In particular, presentations were made for the Chamber of Commerce of Pontevedra, Vigo and Villagarcía de Arousa, Madrid Network and the Chambers of Commerce of Zaragoza and Mallorca. Throughout these webinars, the main sectors of interest in each country were presented and a series of recommendations were given to companies interested in internationalizing their product or service.

The internationalization of companies will be a key element for their survival in the post-Covid situation.

During the months of September and October, the Chamber is planning new presentations.

These are the dates:

  • In collaboration with the Chamber of Commerce of Gran Canaria, 17th September at 11:00
  • In collaboration with the Chamber of Commerce of Huelva, September 29th at 11:00
  • In collaboration with the Chambers of Avilés, Gijón and Oviedo, 30th September at 11:00
  • In collaboration with the Chamber of Commerce of Huesca, October 2st at 9:00
  • In collaboration with the Chamber of Commerce of La Rioja, 6th October at 9.30am.

Webinar on “Impact of Covid-19 on the Spain’s Real Estate Industry and on the value of assets”

On July 8th, the Official Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Belgium and Luxembourg, organized a webinar on “Impact of Covid-19 on the Spain’s Real Estate Industry and on the value of assets”, in collaboration with Gesvalt.

The event was organized within the framework of the Spanish Financial Forum (SFF), a Committee through which the Chamber aims to create a space for opinion and debate on economic and financial issues in Luxembourg where members can share experiences, establish collaborations and exchange information on trends in the sector.

The Vice-president of the Chamber and President of the SFF, Jose Luis Rodriguez Alvarez, highlighted the professional career of the speaker and appreciated her participation in the webinar.

Sandra Daza, General Director of Gesvalt, made a presentation about the effects of Covid-19 in the real estate sector in Spain, and the trends that can be expected. In her presentation she went into detail about which values have been more or less affected, the state of the hospitality sector, how the demand will evolve within the real estate sector, what changes we can expect in the price of assets, what will happen with prices when they return to normal and, consequently, the possible business opportunities.

During the question time, the participants could present their comments and questions on many interesting issues. Thus, various topics were discussed such as the situation of vacation real estate assets located on the coast in the face of declining tourism or what consequences the increase in eCom transactions we are experiencing today will have for the retail sector.

In collaboration with:

Extension of the agreement with Belgium on the social security affiliation of cross-border workers teleworking until August 31st, 2020

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in Luxembourg, many companies have implemented measures to increase the use of the telework. However, working from the home for cross-border workers may have consequences for their affiliation to social security under the provisions of European legislation for the coordination of the social security systems of Member States.

Romain Schneider, Minister of Social Security, from the beginning of the crisis contacted his Belgian, German and French counterparts to find an agreement to avoid an affiliation change if a certain threshold was exceeded (a 25% according to the EU regulation) for workers and employees affected. Following these contacts, it was decided that, in view of the current exceptional situation, the days of telework due to the COVID-19 crisis would not be taken into account for the determination of the social security legislation applicable to the workers in question, and therefore would have no influence on your affiliation to social security.

This agreement has just been extended with Belgium until August 31st, 2020. With regard to France and Germany, an official response should soon arrive.

Romain Schneider points out: “The extension of this agreement is a strong gesture of solidarity from our neighboring countries. Telework is an important tool in the fight against the spread of COVID-19, so companies and employees must be able to continue without suffer any undesirable consequences. I am sure that France and Germany will also support this approach by extending the agreement that we have had so far”.

 

Communicate of the Ministry of Social Security

 

Source: Gouvernement.lu

Lunch&learn: How to attract talent trough mobility schemes

On June 29, the Chamber, in collaboration with the Incubator of Luxembourg City, organized a briefing on mobility programs for SMEs and Startups.

The session was divided into individual meetings with each of the interested companies to answer their questions about the different participation requirements in each of the programs managed by the Chamber:

– Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs, a cross-border exchange program that gives new entrepreneurs the opportunity to work with experienced entrepreneurs who run small businesses in other EU countries.

– The PICE Mobility Plan, a program created by the Spanish Chamber of Commerce and co-financed by the European Social Fund, whose main objective is to offer opportunities for personal and professional development to young people who participate in the program and, at the same time, improve the productivity of partner companies.

 

For more information about our mobility programs, contact us info@e-camara.com.

Agreement between the social partners on the conditions for granting partial unemployment within the framework of the exit from the state of crisis

Under the joint presidency of Dan Kersch, Minister of Labour, Employment and Social Solidarity Economy, and Franz Fayot, Minister of Economy, the social partners represented on the one hand by OGBL President Nora Back and LCGB President Patrick Dury, and on the other hand by the President of UEL, Nicolas Buck, agreed on June 9th the new modalities to grant partial unemployment to companies affected by the COVID-19 crisis.

With the end of the crisis state, the emergency procedures established to help companies through a special mechanism of partial unemployment by “force majeure COVID-19” will expire. The meeting agreed that companies affected by the health crisis should continue to receive support through partial unemployment, preserving as many jobs as possible.

Taking into account that a good number of companies will continue to suffer the negative effects of the health crisis beyond the end of the crisis state, it has already been decided to continue supporting them with the instrument of partial unemployment until the end of the current year.

To take into account the fact that certain sectors have been more severely affected and will delay the return to the same level of activity as before the health crisis or will not achieve it in the near future, four possible ways of benefiting from the agreement were agreed upon partial unemployment:

 

  1. Industrial companies will continue to benefit from the cyclical scheme of short-term unemployment to be able to react to shocks in international markets. By applying the system of partial unemployment from cyclical sources, industrial companies undertake not to fire workers for economic reasons.
  2. The social partners have recognized the particularly difficult situation of companies in vulnerable sectors that continue to be strongly affected by the COVID-19 crisis. Therefore, companies in the hotel, tourism and events sectors will be able to benefit from rapid access to partial unemployment from a structural source, without limiting the number of employees who will be entitled to it. If necessary, these companies may resort to economic dismissals within the maximum limit of 25% of their employees until December 31, 2020. The social partners have explicitly insisted on the fact that the provisions of general jurisdiction provided for by the Code of the Labour Law relating to collective dismissal remain fully applicable. The social partners have agreed that, in the event of a return to an improvement in activity, the companies that have carried out layoffs must, in the event of subsequent recruitment of staff, rehire their former laid-off employees as a matter of priority.
  3. Companies affected by the health crisis, in addition to industrial companies and those from vulnerable sectors, can also resort to short-term work from structural sources along the accelerated route provided, however, without dismissing workers. This measure aims to preserve the jobs in the companies involved as best as possible. In this case, however, the number of employees covered by partial unemployment cannot exceed 25% in the months of July and August, 20% in September and October, and 15% in November and December. In this context, an employee is defined as each employee who has been declared partially unemployed during the current month, regardless of the number of hours of partial unemployment.
  4. Finally, the demands of companies in vulnerable sectors that lay off more than 25% of their workers, as well as those of all the other companies that want to make layoffs, must submit a “traditional” application for partial unemployment.

 

In fact, it was agreed in these situations that admission to the partial unemployment regime could only be granted if the companies proceeded to establish restructuring plans. These plans will be established in the form of a recovery plan in the case of small companies of less than fifteen people, respectively, and in the form of a job retention plan in accordance with the provisions of Article L. 513-1 et seq. Labour Code for companies that employ more than fifteen employees.

The social partners expressed their willingness to negotiate as far as possible the sectoral plans for job retention to use the temporary labour loan instrument.

All these proposals for partial unemployment were approved by the Government in the Council.

The Economic Committee also reserves the right to give negative notice to requests from companies that are clearly not affected at all or only slightly by the health crisis.

The secretariat of the Economic Committee is in the process of implementing, in collaboration with the services of the State Center for Information Technology (CTIE) and ADEM, computer applications to send applications as described above electronically through the myGuichet.lu platform.

Accurate information for business, staff and employee delegations will be quickly prepared and made available on the Guichet.lu website.

 

Communicated by the Ministry of Economy / Ministry of Labor, Employment and Social and Solidarity Economy

 

Source: Gouvernement.lu

More than 4 million to help cultural sector in Luxembourg

To deal with the crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, the Ministry of Culture has drawn up a recovery plan for the cultural sector. More than four million will be allocated to revive the different cultural sectors affected by the crisis.

The Covid-19 crisis did not spare the cultural community. Although the sector has played an important role in many homes during confinement and has helped many people overcome this difficult milestone by reading, watching movies or participating in digital initiatives, cultural and artistic institutions. Today the sector is in a precarious, even difficult situation.

That is why the Ministry of Culture proposes a new recovery plan for the sector that complements the exceptional aid already allocated so far. Details were released Wednesday.

 

An inventory without glory

In total, more than a hundred closed exhibitions, more than a thousand concerts, festivals and other events canceled or postponed, and more than a million spectators who had to give up their ticket.

“We are going through a difficult period, with long-term consequences“, said Sam Tanson (Déi Gréng), Minister of Culture. “The financial impact is also very significant and the cultural infrastructures show a loss of 15 to 30% of their income, which is related to the sale of tickets or restoration. This loss may jeopardize the incomes of independent and intermittent artists of the show. In addition, the Ministry of Culture intervened from the beginning to support the sector, first by granting subsidies to projects that could be carried out in times of crisis, then by amending the law on social measures for intermittent entertainment workers and professional artists to support creatives better in times of crisis”.

Because we must not forget that culture is a real economic sector that employs more than 12,000 people, which represents 5.3% of jobs in Luxembourg. A sector that counts in the general economic balance, but which is also precarious, because a fifth of these jobs are self-employed and, therefore, are in a situation of great economic fragility. On May 20th, it was decided that these grants would last until June 30th, thus increasing the allocation reserved for artists and intermittent workers to 1.2 million in 2020.

From May 11th, libraries and museums can reopen, and from May 29th, rooms such as theaters, cinemas, cultural centers and concert halls can be opened.

However, these places must respect the general sanitary conditions, which does not stop raising many concerns: the use of compulsory masks in the places of circulation, sitting respecting the physical distance, distance also imposed for the speakers on stage, etc.

“Every three weeks, the situation will be re-evaluated, but at this time we still do not know when we can resume activities as we know them“, said the Minister of Culture. That is why the Ministry of Culture is providing a new set of funds to mitigate the effects of the crisis, prevent excessive precariousness of cultural workers, absorb collateral damage in neighboring sectors and allow structures to adapt to new measures to attract your audience again.

 

New help for better support

It is in this context that the agreed structures and associations may submit a claim for compensation to compensate for a financial loss related to the cancellation or postponement of an event, or the closure of the cultural institution. 1.5 million is reserved for these allocations.

The annexes of Bourglinster Castle already housed an artist residency program. This will be reinforced with a three-year mission for a group of artists financed up to € 100,000 for two years and who will be in charge of the management and animation of the place. The principle of residency will also be valued in cultural institutions that can host an artist for at least 6 months. To do this, they will benefit from aid ranging from € 15,000 to € 30,000, for a total of € 150,000 reserved for this action.

The ministry is also increasing its endowment for the acquisition of works of art by € 150,000 that can be used to buy works from galleries.

Regarding music, € 50,000 is reserved for eight new musicals. The theater will benefit from € 100,000 that will be used to write dramatic works that must later be produced on stage. The same amount is allocated to the search for new forms of entertainment that better satisfy the limitations of the sanitary conditions imposed by the Covid-19.

Finally, two very large budgets, each one million euros, are aimed, on the one hand, at supporting regional museums for the development and improvement of their offer, and on the other hand at cultural sites with a tourist vocation. Behind these last two grants, there is a sincere desire to develop these structures that are still underexploited and to enrich not only the cultural offer, but also to strengthen tourist attraction throughout the country. Enough to contribute to the long-term “Vakanz Doheem”.

 

Source: Paperjam.lu

Interview with H.E Mr. Bernardo de Sicart Escoda, Ambassador of Spain to the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg

The commercial activity must recover globally and Luxembourg can deal with both the economic recovery and an increase in commercial activity. We have to be ambitious.

Read more