Financing border: Luxembourg will not pay for toilets abroad

A question raised by Pirates MP Marc Goergen has highlighted one of the paradoxes of Luxembourg's public policy on cross-border mobility. Despite generous investments in joint transport projects with its neighbours, such as the €110 million funding of railways in France or participation in the construction of P+R car parks, there is a strict restriction: state subsidies do not apply to the installation of toilets outside the country.

The Minister of Mobility, Yuriko Backes, has explicitly recognised that under current legislation, "in principle, it is not possible to provide subsidies for infrastructure located abroad". This means that even if the RGTR bus line ends in Belgium, France or Germany, Luxembourg is not entitled to finance the installation of toilets at the terminus if it is outside the national jurisdiction.

However, the Minister proposed a compromise: since the route has two ends, it is possible to install sanitation facilities on the "inner" termini - on the Luxembourg side, which is officially permissible as an alternative.