Country profile: Luxembourg

Red, white and blue come from the arms of the House of Luxembourg, attested from the 13th century: a red lion crowned in gold on a field of white and blue horizontal stripes.

The tricolour appeared around 1830, at the time of the Belgian Revolution, which much of Luxembourg joined. It was used as the national flag for more than a century without any official text.

A law of 23 June 1972 officially enshrined it and specified its colours: red, white and light blue. The same law defined the country's coat of arms and the red lion ensign.

The Luxembourg flag has no official symbolism attached to each colour: it takes up the colours of the country's coat of arms.

• Red: the lion in the arms of the House of Luxembourg.
• White and blue: the horizontal stripes on which the lion stands.

The light blue, paler than that of the Dutch flag, is the element that best distinguishes the two flags.

The Luxembourg flag is almost identical to that of the Netherlands: it differs in its lighter blue and its more elongated proportions. This resemblance regularly fuels the debate on adopting the red lion as the national flag.

In 2006, the MP Michel Wolter tabled a bill to replace the tricolour with the red lion flag (Roude Léiw). The bill did not succeed, but the lion remains very popular, not least in the stands.

The red lion in the arms is one of the oldest heraldic emblems still in use in Europe, borne by the Counts of Luxembourg since the Middle Ages.