Luxembourg PATRICK DUMONT, RAPHAËL KIES & PHILIPPE
1 Luxembourg PATRICK DUMONT, RAPHAËL KIES & PHILIPPE POIRIER Université du Luxembourg Table 1. Cabinet composition of Juncker-Asseblorn II (or Juncker IV) For the composition of Juncker-Asseblorn II (or Juncker IV) on 1 January 2012, see Dumont et al. (2010: 1078–1079). Changes during 2012: Minister of Economy and Foreign Trade/Ministre de l’Économie et du Commerce extérieur: Jeannot Krecké (1950 male, LSAP) resigned and replaced by Etienne Schneider (1971 male, LSAP) on 1st February 2012. Institutional changes A number of decisions voted on by the Chamber of Deputies in 2011 became effective in 2012: first, as part of a long-term plan of reduction in the number of municipalities, sixteen of them merged into six new entities as of 1 January (Dumont et al. 2010; 2012: 202-205).. Second, as decided by a vote in December 2011, a new ombudsman (“mediateure”) was appointed. On 1 February, Lydie Err, former Socialist MP (and junior minister in 1998–9) took over from Marc Fischbach, who had been a Christian-democratic MEP, government minister in the 1990s, and a judge at the European Court of Human Rights, before being chosen as Luxembourg’s first ombudsman by parliamentary vote in December 2003. Err’s mandate is to last until 2020. Also on 1 February the socialist Etienne Schneider took office, as scheduled by an internal Socialist Worker’s Party (LSAP) vote in November 2011 (Dumont et al. 2012: 201), replacing Jeannot Krecké as Minister of Economy and Foreign Trade. The latter had made his frustration about his role in the government known to the public as early as 2010, arguing that the Economy portfolio was a coordination ministry deprived of the instruments that would enable its holder to initiate and implement reforms.
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