Luxembourg, also known as Luxembourg City, is the capital city of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and the country's most populous commune. Standing at the confluence of the Alzette and Pétrusse rivers in southern Luxembourg, the city lies at the heart of Western Europe, situated 213 km (132 mi) by road from Brussels, 372 km (231 mi) from Paris, and 209 km (130 mi) from Cologne. The city contains Luxembourg Castle, established by the Franks in the Early Middle Ages, around which a settlement developed.
The Treaty of Rome, or EEC Treaty, brought about the creation of the European Economic Community (EEC), the best known of the European Communities (EC). The treaty was signed on 25 March 1957 by Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany, and it came into force on 1 January 1958. Originally the "Treaty establishing the European Economic Community", and now continuing under the name "Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union", it remains one of the two most important treaties in what is now the European Union (EU).
The European Atomic Energy Community is an international organisation established by the Euratom Treaty on 25 March 1957 with the original purpose of creating a specialist market for nuclear power in Europe, by developing nuclear energy and distributing it to its member states while selling the surplus to non-member states. However, over the years its scope has been considerably increased to cover a large variety of areas associated with nuclear power and ionising radiation as diverse as safeguarding of nuclear materials, radiation protection and construction of the International Fusion Reactor ITER.
Eurostat is a Directorate-General of the European Commission located in the Kirchberg quarter of Luxembourg City, Luxembourg. Eurostat’s main responsibilities are to provide statistical information to the institutions of the European Union (EU) and to promote the harmonisation of statistical methods across its member states and candidates for accession as well as EFTA countries. The organisations in the different countries that cooperate with Eurostat are summarised under the concept of the European Statistical System.
Kirchberg is a quarter in north-eastern Luxembourg City, in southern Luxembourg. It consists of a plateau overlooking the north-east of the historical city center, Ville Haute, connected to the rest of the elevated city by the Grand Duchess Charlotte Bridge, which spans the Pfaffenthal valley. It is often referred to, in reference to the geographical feature it inhabits, as the Kirchberg plateau, or simply Kirchberg by Luxembourgish residents. Kirchberg is the predominant location of the European Union institutions and bodies based within Luxembourg, and is sometimes used as a metonym for the EU's judiciary, which occupies the quarter. It is thus the central business district of Luxembourg.
The agencies of the European Union are bodies of the European Union and the Euratom established as juridical persons through secondary EU legislation and tasked with a specific narrow field of work.
The Secretariat of the European Parliament is the administrative body of the European Parliament headed by a Secretary-General. It is based in the Kirchberg district of Luxembourg City and around the Brussels-Luxembourg Station in Brussels and employs 4000 officials.
The Directorate-General for Research and Innovation is a Directorate-General of the European Commission, located in Brussels, and responsible for the European Union's research and innovation policy and coordination of research and innovation activities. It is headed by Commissioner Mariya Gabriel and Director-General Jean-Eric Paquet.
Gasperich is a quarter in southern Luxembourg City, in southern Luxembourg.
The Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs is a Directorate-General of the European Commission. The DG ECFIN is located in Brussels, Belgium, and Luxembourg. Its main responsibility is to encourage the development of Economic and Monetary Union both inside and outside the European Union, by advancing economic policy coordination, conducting economic surveillance and providing policy assessment and advice.
The Grand Duchess Charlotte Bridge is a road bridge in Luxembourg City, in southern Luxembourg. It carries the N51 across the Alzette, connecting Avenue John F. Kennedy, in Kirchberg, to Boulevard Robert Schuman, in Limpertsberg. The bridge is also known as the Red Bridge on account of its distinctive red paintwork. It is the main route connecting the city centre, Ville Haute, to Kirchberg, the site of the city's European Union institutions.
Brussels (Belgium) is considered the de facto capital of the European Union, having a long history of hosting a number of principal EU institutions within its European Quarter. The EU has no official capital, and no plan to declare one, but Brussels hosts the official seats of the European Commission, Council of the European Union, and European Council, as well as a seat of the European Parliament. In 2013, this presence generated about €250 million and 121,000 jobs. The main rationale for Brussels being chosen as "capital the European Union" was its halfway location between France and Germany, the two countries whose rivalry led to the two World Wars and whose reconciliation paved the way for European integration.
The High Authority was the executive branch of the former European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC). It was created in 1951 and disbanded in 1967 when it was merged into the European Commission.
The first generation of trams in Luxembourg ran from 1875 to 1964, before being withdrawn from service and the tramways removed. A second generation of trams began operational service on 10 December 2017, along a new route that will, by 2023, run from Luxembourg Airport to the Cloche d'Or business district, in Gasperich, serving the new national stadium, via Pfaffenthal-Kirchberg and Luxembourg railway stations. Additional lines are planned for the network both within Luxembourg City, as well as extending to Strassen and Esch-sur-Alzette.
Pfaffenthal-Kirchberg railway station is a rail station on CFL Line 10, in the north of Luxembourg City which opened in December 2017. It is located on Rue Saint-Mathieu in the Pfaffenthal valley, below the Grand Duchess Charlotte Bridge, overlooking the Alzette River. The Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer Luxembourgeois (CFL), the state-owned rail company, operates both it and the accompanying funicular line, which links the station to tram services on the Kirchberg plateau.
The European Schools is an intergovernmental organisation, which has established, finances, and administers a small group of multilingual international schools, bearing the title "European School", which exist primarily to offer an education to the children of European Union (EU) staff; offers accreditation to other schools, bearing the title "Accredited European School", under national jurisdiction within EU member states to provide its curriculum; and oversees the provision of the secondary school leaving diploma, the European Baccalaureate.
The Jean Monnet 2 building is a future office complex for the European Commission under construction on Boulevard Konrad Adenauer in the European district of the Luxembourg City quarter of Kirchberg, Luxembourg. The complex is to be composed of a welcome pavilion and two office buildings to be completed in two phases respectively; an 8 storey 180 metre (m) long block and a 24 storey tower, connected at the basement and second storey levels. The first phase is expected to be completed by late February 2023, and the second phase by late February 2024. The first Jean Monnet building, opened in 1975, was demolished between 2016 and 2019, after exceeding its lifespan, and following the discovery of airborne traces of asbestos. The construction site combines some of the plot of the previous building with an adjacent former open air car park. Upon completion, the Jean Monnet 2 building will enable the European Commission to consolidate the majority of its Luxembourg-based staff on one site. Like its predecessor, the building's namesake is European Union (EU) founding father Jean Monnet.
The Kirchberg District Centre is a mixed-use building complex in northeastern Kirchberg, Luxembourg City, Luxembourg containing both an office complex and shopping mall, with their principal tenants respectively being the European Commission's statistical office, Eurostat, and an Auchan hypermarket. Those parts of the building dedicated to office use are collectively referred to as the "Joseph Bech building", after European Union (EU) pioneer and former Luxembourg prime minister, Joseph Bech. The complex's shopping gallery is referred to as the "Kirchberg Shopping Centre".
The Palais de la Cour de Justice is a building complex acting as the seat of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), located in the European district of the Luxembourg City quarter of Kirchberg. Today the Palais complex encompasses the original 1973 building, now known as the Ancien Palais, which houses the court rooms of the CJEU's Court of Justice, the Anneau building, encircling the Ancien Palais, which contains the judges chambers and deliberative rooms, the three tower buildings containing the CJEU's translation services, and the Gallery building, containing the CJEU's legal library and linking all the structures of the Palais complex with the renovated three annexes originally constructed between 1978 and 1994 that now host the court rooms of the CJEU's General Court.
