Xavier Bettel has admitted his thesis “could have – yes, maybe should have – been done differently” and has said he will “naturally accept” the outcome of the university’s ongoing investigation.

Experts reviewed the 56-page document for local news outlet reporter.lu and concluded that it was “an impressive hodgepodge of copied passages that does not meet the customary requirements of academia”.

Anna-Lena Högenauer, a professor at the University of Luxembourg, said: “The plagiarism I found is very problematic because long passages were transferred almost word for word. You can’t accidentally copy several pages.”

Mr Bettel’s thesis, submitted during his studies at the University of Lorraine in eastern France (then the University of Nancy), was titled Toward a Possible Reform of Voting Systems in the European Parliament.