The Andorran Business Confederation, the Andorran Family Business and the Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Services of Andorra have presented to the Government this afternoon a document on the joint position of the three entities before the negotiation of an association agreement with the European Union. The document highlights the need for the agreement to bring tangible benefits to the country, helping to diversify the production fabric, providing better communication infrastructures and strengthening the strategic sectors of the country. In addition, the three business organisations are aware of the risks involved in complying with a large number of regulations and reiterate the need for Andorra to provide support to those individuals who are at the heart of its capacity to generate wealth and jobs.
In the joint document, the three entities demand that economic diversification and the attraction of high value foreign investment should not remain a vague promise, but should be made concrete with tangible benefits for the economy as a whole. They also claim that participation in the domestic market will continue to be effective in both respects, contributing to the normalization and strengthening of electronic commerce in Andorra by the rest of the countries in the domestic market and finding a solution to the purchase of goods from Andorra by non-EU citizens who are in transit through Community territory.
So that participation in the domestic market remains real and not virtual, the company considers that it would be appropriate to take advantage of the current scenario of negotiations to solve the chronic geographical situation of Andorra and substantially improve communication infrastructures with the outside world. These infrastructures will also serve to energise the French and Spanish regions that are appropriate for Andorra and allow the Principality to assume a leading role and drive its environment.
With regard to the free circulation of services, the business community is committed to the gradual application of this freedom and to giving priority to the development of sectors that do not exist in the country.
With regard to the free movement of persons, it advocates seeking ways of enabling Andorra to continue to control the flow of migrants, maintain links between residence and work and maintain mechanisms for security and social cohesion such as administrative police measures. In addition, the three entities defend the Andorran social protection model and call for the agreement to include an explicit exclusion of any future harmonization of social protection figures.
In a similar vein, an explicit exclusion of an eventual fiscal homogenization with the rest of the countries of the internal market is required. Because the main risk of the agreement of association, as it is shown in the document of joint position, is that the dynamic adoption of the whole community in Andorra to assume regulations that affect in an especially negative way their interests. For this reason, it is necessary that the agreement, plus the explicit exclusions, includes safeguard clauses and an orderly mechanism to avoid the country assuming the obligations derived from forming part of the European internal market in the future.
With regard to the institutional architecture of the agreement, the three business organizations demand to effectively influence the adoption of Community regulations that will have an impact on the country, through an effective decision shaping (phase of preparatory work undertaken by the European Commission to draw up new legislative proposals. The EEA Agreement contains provisions for input from the EEA EFTA side at various stages before new legislation is adopted). In addition, the document proposes that a clear hierarchical relationship be established between the country's protocol and the framework agreement, which guarantees that the particular features that Andorra includes in the agreement always prevail over the principles and rules governing the domestic market.
It should be noted that the agreement will be of a mixed nature, i.e. it will be approved both by the EU and by each of the member countries. The three entities consider that it is time to put an end to the discriminatory treatment suffered by Andorra, and in the same time, they call for the most-favoured-nation clause to be applied to the Principality and for Andorra to be able to benefit from EU agreements with third countries.
Finally, the representatives of the business community consider that the agreement must be approved by the citizens in a referendum prior to its ratification by the General Council.
The document does not only affect the context of the association agreement and other questions to be negotiated between Andorra and the European Union, but also calls for the adoption of internal policies to regulate the market and adapt the Andorran productive fabric in view of a future reality of market unity with the EU. In this sense, business entities are calling on the administration to regulate public contracts and the market in order to promote those companies that believe that the country is rich and has stable jobs.
Source: CEA - Confederació Empresarial Andorrana