Fireworks display regulations in Luxembourg: mayor's authorisation, ITM competence title and the law of 27 May 2016

Luxembourg has no national declaration of pyrotechnic shows. According to Guichet.lu, the mayor's authorisation is required for any person, association or club wishing to organise fireworks on the public highway or any other event liable to compromise public order; depending on the commune, it may also be needed for fireworks fired on private land. Each commune's police regulation sets out precisely which activities are subject to authorisation.

There is therefore no national statutory deadline: the display company contacts the municipal administration of the firing location, which states the documents to supply and its processing time, often several weeks when the Grand Ducal Fire and Rescue Corps and the Grand Ducal Police are consulted. The Police recalls that many municipal regulations forbid fireworks on the public highway without the mayor's authorisation, including on New Year's Eve.

The law of 27 May 2016 on making pyrotechnic articles available on the market transposes Directive 2013/29/EU. Its article 6 takes up categories F1 to F4, T1/T2 and P1/P2; category F4 is reserved to persons with specialist knowledge, as are T2 and P2. Article 3 defines such a person as one holding a competence title issued by the Labour and Mines Inspectorate (ITM) proving the ability to handle and use those articles.

Article 7 sets age limits (12 for F1, 18 for F2, F3, T1 and P1) and provides that manufacturers, importers and distributors shall not make F4, T2 and P2 articles available to anyone without a competence title issued by the ITM, the conditions of which are set by Grand Ducal regulation. The ITM storage requirements also state that F3, F4 and T2 articles are intended for professional use and may not be sold freely.

The ITM competence title is the document the commune and the supplier will ask the pyrotechnician for. Luxembourg also takes part in Benelux harmonisation: the declaration signed on 17 May 2024 by the Belgian, Dutch and Luxembourg economy ministers describes the pyro-pass as a common control document, linked to a multilingual online authentication platform, to identify persons with specialist knowledge and fight illegal trade.

We found no public official text detailing the conditions for obtaining the competence title (training, examination, validity period) or its automatic recognition of foreign certificates: these points must be confirmed directly with the ITM before a display. A French or Belgian pyrotechnician working in Luxembourg must therefore anticipate that check, in addition to the municipal authorisation.

Storage of pyrotechnic articles falls under the legislation on classified establishments (amended law of 10 June 1999) and the ITM standard requirements: requirement ITM-SST 1809.2 'Dépôts d'articles pyrotechniques' (June 2016) applies to stores from 500 g of active material up to 5,000 kg gross, with rules on construction, labelling, electrical installations, lightning and fire protection. Points of sale must hold an operating authorisation issued by the ITM.

Transport and transfer of explosives and pyrotechnic articles into or through Luxembourg go through a transfer application to the ITM, which issues authorisations and carries out inspections; ILNAS handles market surveillance and CE marking with the Customs Administration. The historical framework remains the Royal Grand Ducal Decree of 20 April 1881 on the transport, trade and storage of gunpowder and explosive substances.

No national safety-distance table for displays was identified in public texts: the applicable distances are those prescribed by the manufacturer for each CE article, and the commune may impose additional conditions (perimeter, hours, fire service presence, road closures). In practice the company hands over a firing plan, the product list with categories and net masses, and the liability insurance certificate.

PyroDesk generates that site plan with the safety radius of each position and the PDF export for the commune and the emergency services; the Luxembourg formalities page lists the documents usually requested and invites the operator to check the municipal police regulation, the only text actually enforceable for the firing location. When a display takes place near the border, the operator also checks the neighbouring country's rules if the safety perimeter crosses it.

Luxembourg has made electronic invoicing mandatory in public procurement (B2G); there is no general business-to-business obligation to date, but institutional clients and large organisers increasingly ask for structured invoices. Quotes and contracts are written in French, German or English depending on the client, and frequently in several languages for the same event. A French or Belgian company invoicing a Luxembourg client also applies intra-Community VAT rules, with the client's VAT number on the invoice.

PyroDesk produces quotes, contracts and the client portal in the language of the file, issues invoices in a structured format compliant with EN 16931 ready for electronic submission, and gathers in the display file the municipal authorisation, the pyrotechnicians' ITM competence titles, the site plan and the product list. The software does not replace verification with the ITM and the commune: it prevents omissions in a country where rules vary from one commune to another.