The City of Luxembourg has repeatedly denied ZUG (and by extension the public) access to information relating to the safety of pedestrian infrastructure. We need your help to cover the legal costs of challenging this refusal in court.
(as of 27 March 2023 cob)
Please mention “donation” in your payment reference:
IBAN: LU23 1111 7405 7274 0000
BIC: CCPLLULL
Account holder is “Zentrum fir Urban Gerechtegkeet a.s.b.l.”
Donate using Payconiq:
ZUG’s “Safe Crossing” project is a crowdsourced map of potentially unsafe pedestrian crossings on the territory of the City of Luxembourg, because of illegally close parking spots.
Our project got significant press coverage in late 2021 and 2022. The City of Luxembourg refuted the validity of ZUG’s analysis, and claimed that it has performed its (secret) analysis of the situation. According to them, only 32 parking spots were supposed to be problematic (the number later got revised to 37).
ZUG then requested the City of Luxembourg release their analysis by filing a request based on the freedom of information law of 2018. The City of Luxembourg denied the initial request with shaky arguments, and ZUG escalated the matter to the “Commission d’accès aux documents” (CAD). In March 2022, The CAD ruled in ZUG’s favour, stating that the City has to release the documents. However, the City then again confirmed that it refuses to do so.
ZUG has no choice but to fight this refusal in court. The demande de réformation was filed in June 2022.
We need your support to cover our legal fees! Our lawyers may invoice us incrementally as the process evolves, and we may launch multiple rounds of crowdfunding.
The project website contains extensive information about the “Safe Crossing” project, the correspondence with the City of Luxembourg, and a press review.
Your donation will cover our legal fees for our case against the City of Luxembourg.
We will keep this page updated to show the evolution of the crowdfunding and to inform donors about our legal bills.
If donations cover more than our legal fees and we have a surplus, we will use these funds to start additional legal proceedings (if applicable and useful), or to finance new projects.
ZUG's volunteers or members will not receive any money from ZUG's crowdfunding (they are donating to the crowdfunding themselves!)
The City of Luxembourg’s decision to refuse citizens access to information relating to their safety is problematic on multiple levels.
Good administration: The administration is handling the situation in an opaque manner, against the spirit of a modern and transparent public body. The immediate result is a lack of accountability: shortcomings resulting from the administration’s decisions remain secret or unverifiable. None of the data ZUG has requested is sensitive in any way that could preclude the city from making the information public. The City of Luxembourg’s arguments for refusal to provide the documents rely on bad faith and misinterpretations of applicable legislation.
Equality: It is unacceptable for the city to hide its decision-making process when it affects us all. Refusing to communicate documents turns citizens into subjects. This shows a deep disregard for a healthy public discourse and a democratic process. This abusive handling of requests for information doesn't affect only ZUG, but every citizen and group that will file similar requests in the future, against public bodies of any type or any political colour.
Pedestrian safety: In 2019, 54 pedestrians were injured on the streets of Luxembourg City; 11 were heavily injured. Many of the injuries happened at pedestrian crossings. ZUG has detected 475 potentially dangerous crossings, and the city has defensively deflected and shifted blame. We want the sunlight of publication to disinfect the city’s unacceptable decision-making process to make the streets safer for all.
Set a precedent: We hope that the court decision will be a reference for future information requests that will make it harder for administrations to shy away from their responsibilities. Courts have not seen many cases in this field since parliament passed the law in 2018, and we are hoping to set an example.
E-mail us at info@zug.lu. We are also on Twitter (@zug_lu) and Instagram (@zug_luxembourg).
