A petition is a request filed by an individual or a group of individuals with the Chamber of Deputies for the purpose of obtaining a decision in favour of a collective interest they are defending.

The right to petition is a fundamental right of citizens. It is enshrined in the Luxembourgish Constitution (Article 27).

There are 2 types of petitions: an ordinary petition and a public petition.

Who is concerned

Any citizen is entitled to submit a petition defending a collective interest to the Chamber of Deputies.

In order to file a public petition, the petitioner must be:

• at least 15 years old;
• listed in the National Register of Natural Persons (Registre national des personnes physiques- RNPP), i.e., they must have a national identification number (13-digit registration number).

How to proceed

Ordinary petitions

Filing an ordinary petition

Ordinary petitions are submitted in writing to the President of the Chamber of Deputies.

The petitioner may:

• make an appointment to submit the petition in person;
• send the petition by e-mail to: petition@chd.lu;
• send the petition by post to the following address:

The petition must contain the signature of the petitioner, and legibly indicate their full name and address.

Processing of an ordinary petition

An ordinary petition is submitted for review to the Committee on Petitions (Commission des Pétitions), which then sends a reply to the petitioner.

Specifically, the Committee on Petitions may request a position statement from the competent minister, forward the petition to another committee, request the opinion of another committee, hear the petitioners at one of its meetings, summon any body or expert concerned by the petition, or even make on-site visits as part of the petition inquiry.

The petitioner is informed by post of the procedures undertaken by the Committee on Petitions. The documents relating to the petition inquiry may also be consulted on the Chamber of Deputies website .

Public petitions

Filing a public petition

A public petition must meet the admissibility criteria defined by the Committee on Petitions and the Conference of Presidents (Conférence des Présidents).

In practice, a public petition must meet the following criteria:

• be of general and national interest (petitions concerning issues of personal interest are excluded);
• respect ethical prinicples;
• be submitted using the form provided on the Chamber of Deputies website, and not through any other means of communication, such as the post, fax or e-mail;
• must not concern an issue for which a petition has already been filed within the last 12 months.

The Committee on Petitions and the Conference of Presidents review the application for a public petition and decide if it is admissible.

If requested to do so by the Committee on Petitions, the petitioner must clarify the details of the petition within one month. Failing a response within that time limit, the Committee on Petitions will hand down an unfavourable opinion as to the admissibility of the petition.

If the application is deemed inadmissible, the Committee on Petitions will treat the petition as an ordinary petition.

Processing of a public petition

A public petition which meets the admissibility criteria is published and made available for signing on the Chamber of Deputies website for a period of 6 weeks (42 days).

At the same time, a discussion forum concerning the petition is opened on the Chamber Website.

Once the public petition has received 4,500 signatures, a public debate within the Committee on Petitions and the sector committee concerned is organised in the presence of no more than 6 petitioners and the competent minister. Chamber TV broadcasts this debate. The meeting is not open to public attendance.

In cases where the public-interest nature of the petition is not recognised, or where the threshold of 4,500 signatures has not been reached, the petition application will be treated as falling within the scope of an ordinary petition (in the latter case with the petitioner's consent).

Participation in a public petition

Anyone may sign a a public petition, provided that they are:

• at least 15 years old;
• listed in the National Register of Natural Persons (RNPP).

A petition may only be signed once. Duplicate entries will be deleted.

Signing a petition electronically

A person who meets the requirements for signing a petition may sign the petition electronically using the online form provided by the Chamber of Deputies.

The full name and address of the signatory are published on the Chamber of Deputies website, unless the signatory decides otherwise. The choice is made when signing the petition.

Signing a petition on paper

In addition to signing a petition electronically, it is also possible to sign a paper form, which is provided by the Parliamentary Administration. The form contains the number and title of the petition, along with the requirements concerning the date of receipt of the form.

Signatures on paper are not published on the Chamber of Deputies website.

Public access to pending petitions

Documents relating to a petition inquiry may also be viewed on the Chamber website under the heading "List of petitions".

There, viewers will find a list of past and pending petitions, as well as the minutes of the meetings and the correspondence related to each petition, provided they are not confidential.

Who to contact