In 1991, a major financial scandal erupted when the international commercial bank BCCI cracked. It had its headquarters in the United Arab Emirates, but its European headquarters was in Luxembourg. The following year, the district court ordered the bank liquidated.
On 2 July 1992, the Luxembourg Parliament ratified the Maastricht Treaty by 51 votes to 6.
At the beginning of 1993, Josée Jacobs became the country’s first female minister – for agriculture. The election the following year retained the majority of the PSC-POS alliance, enabling Jacques Santer to continue as prime minister.
In domestic politics, the aggression against foreign workers in the country began to emerge openly. They make up about half of the country’s workforce.
In 1995, Santer was appointed President of the European Commission, and the Prime Minister’s post was instead transferred to Jean-Claude Juneker.
In recent years, Luxembourg has become one of the world’s most important financial markets – especially in the management of social funds as pension funds. Within this area, the country is home to about $ 356 billion in funds.
In May 1996, the European Commission declared that Luxembourg and France were the only countries whose economy was ready to transition to the Euro in 1999.
As in the rest of the Union, unemployment rose at the end of 1997, although by 3.7% it was the lowest among the 15 Member States. In November, around 30,000 people from various European countries in Luxembourg demanded a Europe “for the benefit of employment”.
In March 1998, the government declared its willingness to increase its contribution to the project for the expansion of high-speed railways – TGV – into Eastern Europe. The aim should be to increase trade with the eastern part of the continent.
Together with the Netherlands and Belgium, Luxembourg proposed in November 1999 that the EU may allow some countries within the Union to go further in integration without having to wait for the other countries. Both to avoid putting too much pressure on new members of the Union, but also to allow closer integration between a number of existing countries. Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker stated that it was imperative to enable an EU at “two speeds”.
Grand Duke Jean declared in December 1999 that he would abdicate in September 2000 to make room for his son Henri. Jean had been the country’s head of state for 35 years. The son – aged 45 – assumed power in October. It is expected that he will shape his own politics and play a more central role in the state’s affairs than the father.
According to thesciencetutor, hundreds of truck drivers blocked Luxembourg’s borders with the requirement of a 48 hour work week. Precisely the transport sector was left out of the 1993 EU Working Time Directive, which limits working hours in most sectors to 48 hours per week. The blockade was supported by drivers from the Netherlands, France and Belgium.
HUMAN AND ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY
Internal state of central-western Europe. Luxembourg, after Malta, is the smallest country in the European Union: at the 2001 census the population was 439,539 residents, Which rose to 465,000 at a 2005 estimate. This positive dynamic was determined both by the natural balance, marked by a slight prevalence of births (12 ‰ in 2005) over deaths (8.4 ‰), and above all by the migratory balance, which in the first five years of the 21st century. it exceeded 10 % on average per year, while in the last decade of the twentieth century it was 2.3%. From an ethnic point of view, Luxembourgers represent 61 % of the total population, while the remaining 49 % is made up mainly of foreigners (mostly Portuguese, to the extent of 14 %, followed by French, Italians, Belgians, Germans, Dutch).
Starting from the eighties of the 20th century. the economy has undergone important structural changes. Internal employment has progressively increased, in particular thanks to frontier workers, who represent 33 % of the total workforce. Gross domestic product grew at a high rate (5 % per year in the period 1995-2004), except for a slowdown recorded for two consecutive years starting from 2002, while unemployment, which for a long time had remained below 3 %, has risen and, at a 2004 estimate, reached 4.5%. These changes essentially derive from a crisis in the steel sector which has undergone a major downsizing, even if the production of high quality steels remains significant. The difficulties faced by the secondary sector were offset by an increasingly prosperous service sector. The Luxembourg economy bases its wealth on business services, financial and banking activities; there are about 200 credit institutions and the stock exchange carries out a significant activity in the field of Eurobonds. However, competition from other European countries (in particular from the financial centers of Dublin, London and Frankfurt) towards the management of the savings funds of the Luxembourg 20th century, when favorable tax laws had encouraged the world’s large financial institutions to set up branches.