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Luxembourg鈥檚 Prime Minister Xavier Bettel departs at the end of a two-day European Union (EU) summit at The European Council Building in Brussels on June 25, 2021. AFP FILE PHOTO
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LUXEMBOURG 鈥� Luxembourg鈥檚 Prime Minister Xavier Bettel on Tuesday announced he was giving up a degree he earned in 1999 after being hit with accusations of plagiarism.
Bettel said he asked the University of Lorraine in France to rescind the Master鈥檚-level degree he was awarded in 1999 鈥渢o remove any doubts about the merits of the DEA (degree) and to avoid a loss of confidence in the academic work鈥�.
He did not admit to plagiarism, and said in a statement that 鈥渋t was not my intention to mislead anyone at the time鈥�.
The plagiarism accusations emerged in an October report by the Luxembourg media outlet Reporter, which said that 鈥渕ore than three-quarters鈥� of Bettel鈥檚 thesis written in 1998 鈥� on voting reform in European elections 鈥� were taken from non-cited sources.
Bettel at the time said he couldn鈥檛 remember the details of what he did decades earlier, but 鈥淚 could have 鈥� and, yes, maybe should have 鈥� done things differently鈥� in his academic work for the degree.
The 48-year-old premier, who is a lawyer by training and formerly admitted to Luxembourg鈥檚 bar, also has another degree from the University of Lorraine, a Master鈥檚 in Law.
The university issued its own statement saying that, after an internal inquiry, it had asked Bettel to quickly redo his degree essay to include 鈥渢he missing citations鈥� and to adopt its current standards on referencing other work.
It said it had informed Bettel of its decision on Monday.
In his statement, Bettel stressed the university鈥檚 finding that he had undertaken an 鈥渙riginal work鈥�, though he acknowledged not giving 鈥渟eparate text references for individual passages, which can be considered 鈥榓 form of plagiarism'鈥�.
鈥淚 regret this situation and ask the University to accept my apology and my decision,鈥� he said.
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