The digitalisation of Luxembourg’s public sector is gathering pace

The Centre for Government Information Technology (CTIE) is the main instrument for modernising the public administration system in Luxembourg. According to the agency’s director, Patrick Houtsch, the organisation, established in 1974, had expanded its workforce to 650 staff by its fiftieth anniversary, and its annual budget had reached 192 million euros. CTIE currently operates platforms for various ministries and manages the guichet.lu portal, which supports over 2,000 public procedures both online and offline. In addition, the centre oversees the national register of natural persons and the issuance of identity cards. Due to the growing demand for digital services, the workload on staff has increased significantly: around 350 projects are currently being developed in parallel, with a further 90 awaiting their turn.

Against the backdrop of an increasing number of challenges, particular emphasis is being placed on the implementation of artificial intelligence. Nevertheless, Patrick Houtsch emphasises the critical importance of technological sovereignty. Unlike systems controlled by large US corporations, the Luxembourg government is committed to local data processing in its own data centres. To implement this strategy, a partnership has been established with the Paris-based company Mistral, enabling the use of European language models within a secure IT perimeter. In particular, a specialised chatbot has been launched for government bodies, to which 14,000 civil servants have already been granted access. This tool is designed solely to support staff in finding information and automating routine tasks, rather than to cut jobs.

At the same time, the process of digitalisation requires strict control over the protection of personal data. This is particularly relevant to the ‘Once-Only’ initiative, the rationale behind which is to spare citizens the need to provide the same information repeatedly to different government departments. At the same time, the free exchange of data between government bodies is prohibited: information is transferred exclusively as part of a specific procedure initiated by the user themselves. Thus, automation and artificial intelligence are viewed as tools for improving the efficiency of the public sector, the use of which is strictly regulated by requirements relating to confidentiality and digital sovereignty.