English in Luxembourg: why the country needs a fourth official language

On Tuesday morning, the Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce presented a plan of 34 proposals aimed at radically renewing the strategy for attracting and retaining young professionals. Among them is a truly breakthrough initiative: a proposal to officially recognise English as a fourth official language. At first glance, this is a symbolic step, but in reality it is an attempt to rethink structurally what the Luxembourg of the future should be.

The idea comes from alarming demographic calculations. According to a forecast by the Inspectorate for Social Security (IGSS), Luxembourg will need an additional 335,000 workers by 2040 - almost double the current working-age population. With limited domestic resources, the Chamber insists: the only way out is to increase the inflow of foreign labour and remove barriers to its integration.

In the Grand Duchy's multilingual professional environment, English has already become the informal lingua franca - especially in finance, IT, the legal sector and academia. However, only three languages are still officially recognised at state level: Luxembourgish, French and German. Giving official status to English would simplify administrative processes, accelerate the digitalisation of public services and reduce rejection among skilled migrants, especially from outside the EU.

At the same time, the Chamber proposes to create a unified digital one-stop shop - a platform where foreign workers and companies can quickly and conveniently resolve bureaucratic issues. And for deeper integration, the government is called upon to develop separate support measures for partners of foreign specialists - from employment to social programmes.

A separate emphasis in the strategy was the proposal to turn Luxembourg into a European centre for artificial intelligence - with developed infrastructure, education and international connections. This will not only help attract highly qualified personnel, but will also increase overall labour productivity - one of the key factors on which the Chamber's working group proposes to bet.