Werner-Cravatte Government
[1] A new political group which represented the interests of those forcibly conscripted into the Wehrmacht during the war, the Popular Independent Movement (Mouvement indépendant populaire), received 2 seats.
[1] In late 1966, the parliamentary intervention of the young CSV Deputy Jean Spautz demanding the abolition of conscription provoked a government crisis.
[2] For the first time in Luxembourg's political history, a woman joined the government, as Madeleine Frieden-Kinnen became Secretary of State for Family, Young People and Education.
[3] Eugène Schaus, the Minister for Foreign Affairs in the previous government, had suggested that Luxembourg host the European Parliament, to compensate a possible loss of the High Authority and the Court of Justice.
After the general elections of June 1964, Pierre Werner, the new Foreign Minister, participated in the negotiations which resulted on 8 April 1965 in the signing of a treaty establishing one Council and one Commission for the European Communities.
[3] On 2 March 1965, the Council of Ministers of the EEC published a document specifying that "Luxembourg, Brussels and Strasbourg remain the provisional working places of the institutions of the Communities".
[3] In 1966, the Luxembourgish government was called on to play an active role in the resolution of the empty chair crisis, which put the European Community to the test.
[3] 1968 was the first time that the Luxembourgish government had to defend a vital interest of the Grand Duchy, which was to be contested more than once by its partners in future: this was the financial centre.
[4] Conscious of the danger that the levelling of tax conditions posed to the fledgling financial centre, the Minister of Finances proposed instead to give priority to monetary harmonisation.
[4] As it happened, the difficulties of the pound sterling and the French franc would turn the attention of European finance ministers away from the Luxembourgish financial centre, and put monetary questions on the back-burner.
[5] Its origins lay in a measure of the United States government to slow the emission of international loans on the financial markets of New York, the Interest Equalization Tax.
[5] In this boom phase, the government of the day had little involvement, even though it did on occasion defend the financial centre against European plans for fiscal harmonisation.
[5] The financial centre profited from both positive external factors, as well as legislation from 40 years previous, prepared under the then-Minister for Finances Pierre Dupong.
[5] From August 1964, the Minister for Public Works, Albert Bousser, put in place a commission to examine propositions to improve the national road network.
[7] At the signing of the Treaty of Rome, Luxembourg had succeeded in obtaining an additional protocol which allowed it to maintain protection measures for a transition period of 12 years.
[7] However, the Luxembourgish government was obliged to enact structural, technical and economic reforms in order to allow full integration by the end of this grace period.
[7] Formerly, the application of the general rule of the Code civil had led to an excessive fragmenation and to the indebtedness of the farms' owners, who had to compensate the other inheritors.
[9] This measure was intended to orientate young people who were not suited to university studies, towards mid-level careers in administration and the private sector, and to free up the overfilled Lycées.
[9] The students of the “Cours supérieurs” went on strike and organised a protest to demand a reform of higher education and the "collation des grades".
