Tuesday's meeting on the future opening times for shops in Luxembourg was billed as the last chance saloon. As feared, the middle-classes minister Françoise Hetto-Gaasch couldn't make the fiercely opposed trade unions and commerce confederation find a common ground.

The meeting was supposed to have come up with a solution for the time after 30 June 2012, when a temporary regulation, allowing shops to open until 9pm on Saturdays comes to an end. Luxembourg's commerce confederation was asking for shop opening times to be completely liberalised, trade unions OGBL and LCGB, on the other hand, were demanding that staff, asked to work between 6pm and 8pm, be paid a supplement in salary of 50%.

After hours of unproductive discussions, the minister decided to take the initiative and end the squabbling with a middle-way settlement : Shops will now be allowed to open until 7pm every Saturday and every weekday preceding a public holiday.

On normal weekdays, opening times of stores will remain at the current time of 8pm. Once a week they'll be allowed to open until 9pm.