Werner-Schaus I Government

[2] The creation of a common European market had repercussions for the structures of the Belgium–Luxembourg Economic Union (UEBL), and made it necessary to revise the treaty of 1921, long before it was due to expire in 1972.

[3] On 11 July 1959, the two countries' foreign ministers signed a treaty dealing with various Germano-Luxembourgish disputes, and establishing compensation for the victims of the occupation.

[3][4] This agreement, criticised as the "treaty of shame", was attacked by those Luxembourgers who had been forcibly conscripted into the Wehrmacht in World War II, and felt discriminated compared to the members of the Resistance.

[3] The treaty of 1959 was not ratified until 1961, after bitter debates in the Chamber of Deputies and a protest on the Place Guillaume that attracted 10,000 members of the Federation of Forcibly Conscripted Victims of Nazism.

[3] In 1959, the closure of the last leather factory, the company "Idéal" in Wiltz, provoked a reorientation of government policy on industrial investments.

[3] Traditional activities which had once flourished, such as slate production, tanneries and furniture manufacturing, were not able to keep pace with international competition and gradually disappeared.

[3] This reinforced the imbalance between the country's rural, farming areas, and the mining basin, where the iron and steel industry was concentrated.

[3] From 1959, the government led an active policy of economic diversification and development in order to modernise the nation's industries, slow the exodus from rural areas, and maintain a regional balance.

[3] A law on economic expansion, passed on 2 June 1962, gave the government the means to attract foreign investments by granting low-interest loans and tax incentives.

[5] The construction of the Grand Duchess Charlotte Bridge, spanning the valley between the city centre and the Kirchberg plateau, started in 1963.

[5] When it had only just assumed office, the government was confronted with a social conflict which risked paralysing the mining and steel industries.

[6] The government eventually managed to persuade both sides to turn to a neutral arbiter, namely Henri Rieben, a professor at the University of Lausanne; this allowed both unions and employers to save face.