The Brussels attacks: measures taken by the Luxembourg government

Following the terrorist attacks in Brussels, a consultation meeting chaired by the Prime Minister and Minister of State, Xavier Bettel, with the participation of the ministers concerned, took place in the afternoon of 22 March 2016. Members of the government received proposals from the Anti-terrorism Coordination Group (Groupe de coordination en matière de lutte contre le terrorisme, GCT) which met beforehand in order to evaluate the terrorist threat on national territory.

On the basis of the information currently available, the GCT believes that there are no tangible links between the attacks in Brussels and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, and reports no suspicious information, reactions or actions on national territory. Consequently, threat level 2, which was put in place following the terrorist attacks on Paris in 2015, remains in force.

In compliance with the VIGILNAT plan, level 2 is triggered when the terrorist threat is judged to be real but abstract. It consists of increasing vigilance to respond to an undefined threat, and triggers the implementation of temporary measures of vigilance, prevention and protection of variable intensity.

Under the VIGILNAT plan, the alert level moves to level 3 when the terrorist threat becomes both concrete and probable. According to information currently available, there is no indication that this is the case in Luxembourg.

Given the extremely serious nature of the attacks carried out in Brussels, the government has decided to implement and/or continue the following measures:

• the GCT will continue to evaluate the terrorist threat on a permanent basis;
• security measures adopted at certain sensitive locations, in particular at stations and Luxembourg airport, will be strengthened;
• border controls at the border with Belgium;
• the stakeholders that would be affected if the alert level increased to level 3 (the State Intelligence Service, the Grand Ducal Police, the High Commision for National Protection, the Luxembourg Public Prosecutor, the Army, the Rescue Services Agency, the Customs and Excise Agency, the Government Information and Press Service and sensitive locations) will be required to prepare for such possible increase in response to any changes to the terrorist threat over the coming days and weeks.