TEIN Annual Conference The effects of the COVID 19 crisis on the cross-border cooperation between France, Spain and

Online event, Friday 13 November 2020 Organised by the Institut d’Estudis Catalans, Barcelona, Spain

Andorra: international challenges and opportunities Presentation by Maria Ubach i Font, Minister of Foreign Affairs Andorra

Ladies and gentlemen, First of all, I would like to thank the Transfrontier Euro Institut Network for inviting Andorra to its Annual Conference. It is an honour for me to introduce my country, the Principality of Andorra, to this renowned institution. Please allow me to make a quick presentation about Andorra, then how our Government has managed the Covid-19 health crisis and finally, I will talk about the major challenges of my country. I- Brief introduction to Andorra’s reality I would like first to introduce to you our small and old country by giving a short description on it, and some main figures. Andorra is located between France and Spain in the Pyrenees from 180 km from Toulouse and 180 Km from Barcelona. Andorra is a parliamentary co-principality. The only country in the world with 2 Heads of State who represent, jointly and indivisibly, the people of Andorra. They are the symbol and guarantee of Andorra’s independence. At the present time, our Coprinces are Mr. Joan Enric Vives, Bishop of Urgell, and Mr. , president of the French Republic. The as a sovereign country is a long path. In 1278 the first Pariatge, an agreement signed between the bishop of Urgell and the count of Foix that shaped Andorra as an independent and neutral country. We celebrated last year the 600th anniversary of the Consell de la Terra -the Land’s Council - one of the oldest European parliaments which has been the highest expression of our self-government since 1419. In 1981, the first Andorran executive council was created.

On 14th of March 1993, the people of Andorra adopted its first . Therefore, our Principality became a state fully recognized and governed by the rule of law and thus started to participate in the international scene, through the creation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The General Council, which is the current name of our Parliament, exercises the legislative power, approves the budget of the State and controls the Government’s political action . It consists of one chamber composed by 28 members. The country is divided into 7 local administrative divisions known as “parishes” managed by its own town halls. The territory of the Principality of Andorra covers an area of 468 square kilometres (Luxemburg, for instance, is 5,5 biggest than Andorra) and has an average altitude of 2000 meters. Due to its particular geography and location, only 8 to 10%1 of its surface is urbanized and cultivated; 90% is covered by forests, lakes, rivers and mountains. Andorra’s population is 77.543 inhabitants (2019).

The Andorran people account for 36.700, followed by Spanish citizens (18.700), Portuguese citizens (9.200), French citizens (3.200) and other nationalities. In total there are approximately 100 different nationalities. The official language is Catalan. However, Spanish and French are also widely used. Andorra is a member of the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie, of the Iberoamerican Conference and an observer member of the Community of Portuguese Language Speaking countries. Andorra’s economic activity centres mostly on services. Tourism and commerce are the main pillars of Andorra’s economy; together with their connected activities, they account for more than 45% on our GDP2. Before the pandemic, tourism was bringing nearly 8 million visitors per year. Foreign trade is very important to the Andorran economic activities: the strong domestic and foreign demand and the relatively low weighting of Andorran industry leads to a high trade deficit and a very low export coverage ratio3. Another strategic area for Andorran economy is the financial sector; with the banking system at its core, it contributes to the Andorran GDP with about 21%. The first decade after the Constitution, we focused on implementing institutional reforms, such as the creation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, that didn’t exist before 1993, because the Coprinces –and not the Andorran Government- were in charge of the international affairs.

1 Current projections would allow building land to be extended up to 45 square kilometers. 2 GDP 2016 = 2.590 millions €; GDP 2016 per capita = 35.400 € 3 Imports of goods 2016: 1.300 millions €; Exports of goods 2016: 91 millions €.

Once the institutional and political system that derives from the Constitution was fully implemented, we focused on economic reforms. Andorra is something more than a remain of the past; it’s an open country, committed to the present and willing to share the future’s challenges and opportunities. The Andorran Government has been proactive in the international finances. Since 2009 Andorra is committed to following the international standards in tax cooperation: the Government has signed tax information exchange agreements, doble taxation agreements and cooperates closely with the UE, the Global Tax Forum of the OCDE. Moreover, on the 26 October this year, Andorra became member state of the International Monetary Fund. This economic and fiscal reforms allow us to open our economy, by having access to new markets, requesting the Level Playing Field and also developing the Economic Agency Actua Program in order to promote foreign investments in Andorra. The Andorran Government has been proactive in the fight against climate change. Negative effect of the climate change and global warming are also visible in Andorra. That is why our Government is fully committed to fight against climate change through concrete actions. In this sense, the Andorran constitution in 1993 was a pioneer by including the right to the environment as a citizen’s right and therefore as an obligation for the public authorities. We have to stress that we align our domestic reforms with the international strategy. The fight against climate change is an essential pillar of the multilateral structure and Andorra works relentlessly to fulfil the commitments of the Paris Agreement. Andorra is proactive in the education sector. Andorra is proud to have a rich, diverse, integrating state education system available for all citizens. A system in which families can opt for Andorran, Spanish or French education, all of them promoting democratic values in order to prepares our young people to become committed and supportive citizens of the world. In that sense, Andorra promotes the Education for citizenship through a strong cooperation with the Council of Europe. Important efforts have been carried out in Andorra to introduce human rights and democratic values as a part of the academic curriculum of our children and young people. All these actions are in line with the Sustainable Development Goals Andorra is proactive from the social perspective. One of the works carried by Andorra over the last years has been to prepare a White Paper on Equality that is the basis to implement transversal actions in favour of inclusion from the public sector as well as from the private sector.

This white paper has led to an Equality Act that is a tool to eradicate any situation of discrimination.

II- Andorra and the COVID-19 First of all, this crisis confirmed our fragility and our dependence on our two neighbours. The restriction of the mobility in France and Spain during the first wave brought a negative consequence for Andorra as far as tourism was totally stopped from the 15 March till the end of May. Only cross-border workers and people with a health emergency who needed to go to the hospitals in Toulouse or Barcelona could travel. The management of this situation was absolutely complex. In that context we were in permanent contact with the Spanish and French authorities. In recent history such a situation had never happened in Andorra. At the beginning of the health crisis, we had to find medical products as masks or respirators. In that sense we received the support of the French authorities, who provided us with masks and offered the possibility to transfer patients with Covid to the Hospital of Foix in Ariège (around 100 km from Andorra). We also treated dialysis patients from La Seu d’Urgell (city in Spain-around 20 km from the border) in the Andorran Hospital. Since some of the medical professionals from the only hospital we have in Andorra got infected with COVID-19, we needed to find support in order to cope with the health crisis. In that sense, we established a cooperation agreement with Cuba, thus resulting in 35 health professionals being sent to Andorra. We had also to manage the return of Andorran citizens and residents who were abroad, located in different places of the globe. The Andorran economy depends on the tourist sector to such an extent that more than 45% of our GDP is linked to tourist activities. The Government took measures to compensate for the loss of income experienced by both salaried workers and self-employed businesspeople who were bearing the brunt of the lockdown and the restrictions on the movement of people and which consequently affected the movement of tourists as well. Three laws were enacted within the framework of an extreme emergency procedure and the purpose of these laws was to introduce exceptional measures to help offset the consequences that the health crisis had for individuals and for companies. These laws were based on the principles of solidarity and co-responsibility. Prior to the health crisis, the government of Andorra was in a healthy financial situation. Indeed, public debt represented only 34% of GDP. This situation meant that the government was in a position to

implement an ambitious plan costing almost €400 million, equivalent to more than 85% of the annual State budget, to fight COVID-19. The strategy of the Andorran government was based around three distinct axes. On the one hand, the strategy outlined the fight to deal with the pandemic and to stop the spread of the disease and also to make sure that all our citizens have access to adequate health assistance. The aim of the second axis of action was to help the economic actors in order to avoid a large number of layoffs. Finally, the third axis consisted of providing the social assistance necessary to maintain the social cohesion of society and to make sure that no one was omitted or left behind. The Government made 40 million euros available to finance self-employed businesspeople and employees in order to prevent redundancies and the destruction of the business fabric. This was the first time in our history that such a decision had been taken. 1,446 companies applied for financial assistance and 1310 were able to benefit from the initiative, and this had a direct impact on more than 13,000 employees, equal to 44.4% of all employees. The Government’s budgetary efforts have been considerable. As a way of example, we introduced zero-rate credits to the tune of 230 million euros to allow companies to refinance their loans and to help them with their operating costs. This allowed the companies to benefit from the aid and to defer the payment of their electricity, telephone, and internet bills. In particular, the Government took charge of employer contributions to the Social Security for those employees who had been furloughed as a result of the lockdown. Most of the decrees implemented to create these economic measures were scheduled to continue until 31 December 2020 but plans are already in place to have them extended. An allowance corresponding to the minimum wage was paid to parents who had to stay at home during the lockdown period so that they could look after children under the age of 14 or children with disabilities. This allowance continued to be paid in those cases where the child had to be quarantined as a result of having come into contact with a person who had tested positive. A childcare service was also put in place from 20 April to 31 May for parents working in essential services. 210 students between the ages of 3 and 12 benefited from this service, equivalent to 3.4% of all children in this age group. The first step of the strategy implemented during the health crisis consisted of a serological testing campaign during the months of April and May to test for SARS-CoV-2 and it covered the entire Andorran population. Despite being voluntary, the campaign was backed by more than 90.8% of the population. Since the month of April, people showing symptoms of SARS-CoV-2 have been given a

TMA-PCR test to see if they have the disease. In this way, 65,809 TMA tests were carried out in an 8- months period in addition to 14,136 PCR tests. Also, all students and professionals working in schools were called for testing during the week before the start of the school year at the beginning of September. 91.3% of children and adults working in the school environment or a total of 11,317 persons were tested.

The Ministry of Health provided a telephone number to offer all Andorran citizens and residents the possibility of taking a Covid-19 test. The appointments for these tests are arranged quickly and the results are communicated in less than 48 hours. The system for tracking contact cases is controlled by a team set up for this purpose. In this way, Andorra is able to carry out 8,851 TMA/PCR tests per 100,000 inhabitants each week. I would like to highlight the huge economic effort that this represents for the Government. Indeed, since the start of the year more than 400 million euros have been provided to respond to the pandemic only, and the Government is waiting to see how the health situation develops before it implements any further aid programmes that might be deemed necessary. I would like to underline the fact that the initial Government budget for 2020 that was passed at the start of the year was 470 million euros. Furthermore, Andorra provides employment to more than 5000 seasonal workers during the winter months, and these workers represent 6.4% of our population. Many of these workers come from countries in Latin America. When we entered lockdown in mid-March, we went to great lengths to help seasonal workers return to their countries of origin, mainly Argentina and Chile. More than 2,000 seasonal workers were not able to return home until the end of the lockdown, and the Government extended their residence permits as well as their social security coverage. The Andorran authorities arranged accommodation for seasonal workers and provided them with financial and food aid, and worked with the authorities in the countries of origin to help the workers return to their home countries at the earliest possible opportunity. At an educational level, many efforts were made to help alleviate the effects of the closing of all educational centres from 16 March to 1 June. Distance-learning courses were set up, and the Ministry of Education and Higher Education established a system to lend computer equipment to those students who needed it in order to prevent inequalities between children irrespective of whether they had computer equipment at their disposal or not. 2.8% of all students availed of this resource and all of the families who applied for assistance received the material they had requested. An agreement

was also reached with the telecommunications company “Andorra Telecom” to establish a free internet connection for any students who did not have one at home. A childcare service for young children was also set up for parents employed in key sectors. Families were given direct help with school-meals for schoolchildren during lockdown. Families also received school-transport payments corresponding to three and a half months, and this amounted to 106,513 euros. The collaboration between the Ministry of Education and Higher Education and the College of Psychologists aimed at making sure that children and young people who find themselves in a vulnerable situation because of lockdown could receive psychological support, is also worth mentioning.

Young people over the age of 12 who wished to receive such support were also able to use, free of charge, a specific application that allowed them to ask for help or report a situation of risk. The young person was then put in direct contact with a psychologist or an educator according to the situation. III- Challenges for Andorra One of the challenges that we have to face now within the context of the pandemic is continuing the negotiation on the Association Agreement with the European Union. Since 2015, the European Union and the Principality of Andorra have been negotiating an Association Agreement together with the Principality of Monaco and the Republic of San Marino. The objective of this agreement is to allow the participation of Andorra in the internal market of the EU while respecting its specificities, in line with Declaration 3 of Article 8 of the Treaty of European Union. Indeed, the level of market access should be comparable to that enjoyed by the European Economic Area Member States. The Agreement will be a means for the transformation of the Andorran economy, thus bringing new opportunities and creating new activity sectors. One of Andorra’s main weaknesses is an undiversified economy and we believe that participating in the Internal Market shall foster the sustainability and diversification of our economy, resulting in business opportunities and in an equal treatment for our citizens in the EU. The Internal Market is already the natural environment for Andorra since we share a common history, common principles and common values. Within the context of the health crisis, we reaffirm that the Association Agreement is a strategic priority as it should provide for financing mechanisms in order to reinforce the resilience of the

Andorran economy and for the modernization of our cooperation with the EU outside the four freedoms. The Association Agreement should also allow Andorra to participate in EU programs and establish financial modalities for cooperation outside the four freedoms. This contribution should be adapted to the territorial, demographic and economic dimension of the country. Given its history and geographical location, its economy, its society and its values, Andorra is intrinsically a European country. This Agreement between Andorra and the EU can represent a chance to show that, in times of uncertainty, constructive and harmonious relations between the EU and third states can also be established. Andorra could strengthen the principles and values that the European Union represents. Another challenge is to promote the cross-border cooperation. The crisis showed us that we have to reinforce the cross-border cooperation.

Cross-border cooperation with Occitanie Region. Over the years, we have established a close cooperation with the Prefecture d’Occitanie and with the local elected representatives of the Départament de l’Ariège and the Département des Pyrénées Orientales. This cooperation generates a roadmap with projects in the context of road infrastructure, environment, agriculture, education or tourism. We organise since 2017 an annual Meeting Occitanie-Andorra chaired by the Head of Government of Andorra, the Préfet de la Région Occitanie and the Representative of the Chairman of the Région Occitanie. On 23 October the meeting took place in Andorra. The objective was to promote concrete activities in order to bring together economic players and public officials through working groups in particular on health, tourism, environmental and agriculture.

Cross-border cooperation with Catalonia. Andorra has very close ties with Catalonia. We share a same language; a similar culture and many Andorran people have family ties with Catalonia. We have signed several Memorandum of Understanding in the context of environment, culture, innovation or education, among others, with Catalan authorities.

The Airport of La Seu d’Urgell-Andorra is one of the main projects we are working together. This small airport already obtained the flight permit and hopefully will be able to offer domestic and international schedules.

Cross-border cooperation within the Working Community of the Pyrenees (Comunitat de Treball dels Pirineus). Andorra is part of the Working Community of the Pyrenees, which is a political organisation together with 6 other partners from Spain and France. In 2005, France and Spain signed an agreement to create the Consortium of the CTP in other to allow the CTP to be Managing Authority of the Operative Programme of cross-border cooperation Spain- France-Andorra POCTEFA. In 2010, Andorra, France and Spain signed a Protocol to the Agreement that allows Andorra to participate in the Consortium. Andorra has chaired twice the CTP in 1998-1999 and in 2013-2015. During the programme POCTEFA 2007-2013, Andorra participated in 4 cross-border projects. In the Programme POCTEFA 2014-2020, Andorra participated in 31 projects and made a financial contribution of more than 2 million euros. Today Andorra participates actively in the elaboration of the POCTEFA 2021-2027 and expects that a creation of a functional Area that will cover the cross-border territory of Andorra will soon be a reality so we can cooperate to develop concrete projects with an important impact for the territory. During the last plenary of the CTP last October the 7 partners adopted a declaration that pointed out the importance of the Pyrenees Strategy, an essential tool to promote the cross-border cooperation in particular in health, youth, heritage cultural issues and the programming process for the new POCTEFA. Andorra is also part of the Programme SUDOE. Cross-border cooperation through UNESCO candidatures. The summer solstice fire festivals take place in the Pyrenees was inscribed in 2015 on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity of UNESCO. We are now working together with France and Spain to prepare other UNESCO candidatures to the World Heritage list and to the Intangible Cultural Heritage.

Conclusion  The Health crisis has obliged our country to adapt to the new reality.

 We need to find a balance between preserving the economy and the health situation.  We have established a strategy of being a leading country in its diagnostic capacity, with 8,332 tests being carried out during within a week and having a very efficient traceability capability, thanks to the number of tracers, with 110 people now employed.  In order to face the winter season with the maximum safety and quality guarantees in place, both for our residents and tourists, Andorra is finalising protocols that will be implemented from December onwards with the opening of the ski slopes.  The Cross-border cooperation needs to be reinforced; both our territory and our neighbours will benefit from a stronger cooperation.