History

FEDIL was founded in 1918 by Paul Wurth who in the aftermath of the First World War gathered together 54 foresighted industrials to rebuild the country in a state of economic and social chaos. FEDIL, the Federation of Luxembourgish Industrials (Fédération des Industriels Luxembourgeois), thus was born out of the will of industrials motivated by the joint vision to ambitiously develop Luxembourg’s economy. The founding principles were deliberate: political neutrality, the defence of economic interests through the specific organism, and respect for the interests of workers and employers. This industrial development has been the foundation of the economic upsurge of the country and the impelling progress in the social, cultural, and political domain.

Understanding its members’ interest in internationalisation, FEDIL actively contributed to a European construction in the aftermath of World War Two. In 1949 FEDIL, together with five other member states of the European Community of Coal and Steel (CECA) it cofounded the “Conseil des Fédérations Industrielles d’Europe” (CIFE), an organisation that would become the “Union des Industries de la Communauté européenne” (UNICE) due to the proclamation of the Treaty of Rome in 1958 and was renamed into BusinessEurope in 2007.

In the 1970s, the European Union is established. FEDIL, at the heart of the economic and social consulting board of CECA and CEE, took part in this process, adhering to the interest of internationalisation of its members. It became the first federation of Luxembourgish companies to establish an office outside the country in Brussels in 2003. Meanwhile, it also accompanied the development of Luxembourg’s economy towards services and now includes the future branches of excellence in services and consulting among its members.

After four generations, FEDIL unites a close-knit community of industrials and entrepreneurs, men and women, that help each other in order to contribute to the upsurge of Luxembourg and to prepare tomorrow’s economy.