Five stories you may have missed
In case you missed them, Luxembourg Times has selected five top news stories of the week for you
Amazon's Luxembourg office Photo: Marc Wilwert
Second Coronavirus case confirmed in Luxembourg
A second person has been diagnosed with the deadly Coronavirus in Luxembourg, the health ministry has said. The infected person had just returned from the north of Italy where there has been a large outbreak of the virus.
Amazon contests Luxembourg gave it illegal tax breaks in EU court
Retail giant Amazon argued that judges should annul an order for it to pay Luxembourg €283 million in what Brussels says were illegal tax breaks the country granted which short-changed fellow European states. Lawyers for the company and Luxembourg argued to a five-member panel of the General Court on Thursday that the European Commission's 2017 decision was wrong.
Court hears secret recording of Juncker with spy chief
A court listened to a conversation of 13 years ago between Jean-Claude Juncker and his former secret service head which the latter secretly recorded with a wristwatch, in a bid to establish whether Luxembourg's former prime minister authorised an illegal wiretap. Marco Mille, the former head of Luxembourg's secret service and two former agents stand accused of violating the law by recording a dialogue with a source and tapping his phone over a weekend in January 2007.
Luxembourg seeks NATO spending boost in space, data grey zone
Military spending is boosting Luxembourg's burgeoning space and data industries as the country seeks to meet NATO commitments beyond its army of just 450 active soldiers. It is not just classic weaponry that the country is hoping will get its military spending closer to the 2% of GDP minimum that NATO members committed to in 2014: much of the money will flow to areas such as cyber security and satellite surveillance.
Buyers borrow €550k on average to afford Luxembourg homes
Homebuyers in Luxembourg are stretching their average mortgage loans to €550,000 to be able to afford the sky-high property prices, latest figures from a mortgage broker show. The average price for an apartment has now reached up to €7,158 per square metre while a house sets buyers back by €740,000 on average. In Luxembourg City, these figures are higher, with a newly built flat costing more than €8,500 per square metre.
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