Vivre ensemble study material in English: the official brochures

What counts as Vivre ensemble study material

The Vivre ensemble exam tests three areas: fundamental rights (10 questions), state and communal institutions (20 questions) and the history of the Grand Duchy and European integration (10 questions). The official study material is a set of documents published by the Luxembourg government, all available in English.

The list is longer than it needs to be for the exam. Some brochures are core reading, others are background. Knowing which is which saves you a lot of time.

3

core brochures for the three exam areas

20 / 40

questions on institutions: half the exam

2023

the new Constitution, in force since 1 July

The table below sums up the documents, then each one is described in its own section.

About Political Institutions in Luxembourg

This is the single most important brochure. It describes how the State works: the constitutional monarchy and the role of the Grand Duke, the Chamber of Deputies, the Government, the Council of State, the courts, the municipalities and the consultative bodies such as the professional chambers and the Economic and Social Council.

Institutions are half the exam, and they are also where many hard questions sit. In CivicLearn practice data (391 learners, about 700,000 answers, October 2026), the question learners miss most is about the difference between the judicial courts and the administrative courts. Read the chapter on the courts slowly.

How to read it

For each institution, write down three things: how it is composed (how many members, how they are chosen, for how long), what it does, and what it does not do. The "does not do" column is where most exam traps come from. The Council of State gives opinions but votes no laws; the Grand Duke appoints the Government but every act needs a minister's countersignature.

Our chapters on institutions, courts and justice and communes and elections follow the same structure.

The Constitution of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg

The new Constitution has been in force since 1 July 2023. It is the legal basis for both the rights area and the institutions area, which together make up 30 of the 40 questions.

You do not need to read it article by article like a lawyer. Read the chapters on the State and its symbols, on fundamental rights and public freedoms, and on the Grand Duke, the Chamber of Deputies, the Government, the Council of State, justice and the communes. Skim the rest.

Our page on the 2023 Constitution explains what changed and which parts matter for the exam.

Alongside it: the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is short and easy to read. It is part of the material for the fundamental rights area, which has 10 questions. Read it once in full; the ideas are familiar to most people.

What the exam tests is less the content of each article and more the context: who proclaimed it, when and where, and how it differs from the other rights texts (the French Declaration of 1789, the European Convention on Human Rights of the Council of Europe, and the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights). Our fundamental rights chapter puts the four side by side.

About the History of Luxembourg

This brochure tells the story of the country from the founding act of 963 to the present day: the County and the Duchy, the Burgundian, Spanish and Austrian periods, French annexation, the Congress of Vienna, the Treaties of London of 1839 and 1867, industrialisation and the steel industry, the two world wars, and the post-war choice of alliances.

History shares its 10 questions with European integration, so this brochure is worth perhaps five or six questions. That is still a lot, and history questions are often lost on dates that sound alike.

How to read it

Do not try to remember the whole narrative. Build a timeline of about 15 to 20 dates as you read, with one line per date. Pay special attention to pairs that are easy to swap: the Spanish and Austrian Netherlands, the two Treaties of London, 963 and 1354, 1795 and 1815. Our history chapter gives you that timeline ready-made.

About Luxembourg and the European Union

This brochure covers Luxembourg as a founding member of the European Communities, the main treaties, the EU institutions and the European institutions based in Luxembourg, such as the Court of Justice of the European Union and the European Court of Auditors. It also covers Luxembourg figures in European history and the Schengen Agreement, signed in the Luxembourg village of Schengen.

It is short, but it matters more than its length suggests. European integration is one of the two subtopics with the highest miss rate in our data, at 28.0%, mainly because the treaties are confused with each other.

Make a five-line table of the treaties (ECSC, Rome, Maastricht, Amsterdam, Lisbon) with a year and one change for each, and learn it by heart. Then read our European Union chapter.

The overview brochures and the background titles

Everything You Need to Know About the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and the 10 Fact Sheets

These two documents give a short tour of the country: geography, population, the economy, the political system and history. They are useful at the start to get the big picture and at the end as a quick check. They do not replace the three core brochures.

Symbols of the State and of the Nation

Short and directly useful. Questions on the flag, the coat of arms, the national anthem Ons Heemecht, National Day on 23 June and the national language belong to the State subtopic within institutions.

Languages, festivals and traditions, theatre, literature

These brochures help you understand life in Luxembourg and are pleasant to read. For the exam they are background: the three official areas do not cover theatre or literature. Read them if you have time after the core material, not before.

How much time to give each document

The exam's 10/20/10 split is the best guide to how you divide your reading time. Institutions carry 20 questions, so About Political Institutions in Luxembourg and the institutional chapters of the Constitution deserve about half of your study time. Rights and history with the EU carry 10 questions each, so each deserves about a quarter.

Length is a poor guide. The history brochure is long, but it shares its 10 questions with European integration, so it is worth fewer questions per page than the much shorter brochure on Luxembourg and the European Union. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights takes little time to read but feeds a whole area. The overview brochures and the titles on languages, festivals, theatre and literature are pleasant reading, but they should get the time you have left over, not your first evenings.

A practical check: after each document, try a handful of practice questions from that area. If your score there is already high, move on. If it is low, read the document again with your notes before going further, because the next document will not fix the gap.

A suggested reading order

The order below puts the most valuable material first, so that if you run out of time you have already covered what carries the most questions.

1. Start with an overview

   Read Everything You Need to Know About the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg or the 10 Fact Sheets in one sitting, without notes, to get the big picture.

2. About Political Institutions in Luxembourg

   Read it with notes, one institution at a time. This is half the exam. Then read Symbols of the State and of the Nation.

3. The Constitution, selected chapters

   Read the chapters on rights and freedoms and on the institutions. Check that what you noted from the institutions brochure matches the 2023 text.

4. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

   Read it in full, then learn the four rights texts with their dates and authors.

5. About the History of Luxembourg

   Read it with a timeline open beside you.

6. About Luxembourg and the European Union

   Finish with the treaties table, which you will want fresh in your memory.

How to read the brochures efficiently

The brochures are long and were not written as exam preparation. They explain and give context; the exam asks short factual questions. A few habits close that gap.

• Read with a question in mind. For each paragraph, ask: what multiple-choice question could be made from this? Numbers, dates, names and "who does what" are the usual answers.
• Keep a "confusables" list. Every time two things look alike (two courts, two treaties, two dates), write them on the same line with the difference. This list is your most valuable revision note.
• Test yourself early. Do a few practice questions after each brochure, not only at the end. Wrong answers show you which paragraphs to re-read.
• Check the date of what you read. Institutions change. The Constitution was renewed in 2023 and the head of state changed in 2025, so older summaries can be wrong.
• Look at the traps. The most-missed questions page shows which facts learners confuse most, so you know where to slow down.

Where to find the material

The official documents are published by the Luxembourg government and can be found through the official sources listed below. Make sure you take the English versions and, for the Constitution, the text in force since 1 July 2023.

All of the documents listed on this page are also included in the reference library of the CivicLearn Vivre ensemble course, next to the practice questions, so you can check a fact while you practise without leaving the course. If you are still deciding how to prepare, read course or exam, and for the overall process see citizenship requirements.

Official sources

• guichet.lu – Luxembourg nationality and the Vivre ensemble requirement
• lifelong-learning.lu – adult education and Vivre ensemble sessions
• legilux.public.lu – the Constitution and the law of 8 March 2017
• chd.lu – the Chamber of Deputies