The Diplomat
The head of the Government of Andorra, Xavier Espot Zamora, declared yesterday that the pandemic has strengthened, “more than ever”, the bilateral relations with Spain and assured that the Principality “does not make tailor-made suits” for anyone and that all those who reside or invest in Andorra must adopt to its rules “equally, whether they are businessmen or youtubers”.
During his intervention in NEF Online, a telematic informative meeting organized by New Economy Forum, Xavier Espot assured that Spain and Andorra maintain a “very mature” relationship in which “collaboration and cooperation” prevail and which is materialized in “many agreements on social security, education, health, security or civil protection” and even in cooperation in tax matters and exchange of banking information.
“We have almost all the areas of collaboration covered”, but “when these bilateral relations are put to the test is in moments of extreme difficulty, as with the pandemic”, and, in this sense, the help provided by Spain during the critical phase of COVID-19, a “practical, economic, with vaccines and also moral” help, has strengthened “more than ever” the bilateral ties.
On the other hand, the Cap de Govern highlighted the “resilience” of the Andorran banking sector, which “has proved to be much more resilient and stronger than many thought, who predicted its disappearance”. Andorran banking “is now in an adequate position to compete within and beyond our borders” and has managed to overcome its previous phase, in which “evidently, it was a business very much based on banking secrecy”, he said. That “model has nothing to do with the current one” and, at present, “neither the OECD, nor the EU, nor any serious organization or country considers Andorra a tax haven”, in spite of “the prejudices and clichés of the past that are still alive”, he continued.
“Andorra has made a process of reconversion and transformation in the field of taxation and implementation of the regulations against money laundering and financing of terrorism, and in the exchange of banking information, which clearly certify that we are no longer a tax haven”, Espot declared. For this reason, he assured, Spain and Andorra have not signed any pact to avoid tax fraud because “it already exists” with the signed agreements, which “are being complied with”.
Regarding the controversy generated in Spain by youtubers and sportsmen who have chosen to reside or invest in the Principality (among them the footballer Leo Messi) to take advantage of its tax advantages, Xavier Espot assured that “Andorra does not make tailor-made suits”. “We have a regulation and this regulation applies to everyone equally, whether they are entrepreneurs or youtubers, Spaniards or residents of any other place, we do not have special regimes”, he said. Therefore, people who decide to move to Andorra to reside and invest, “not only because of the tax conditions, but also because of the security, the education and health system or the natural sites”, must do so “under these conditions”, he concluded.
On the other hand, Espot assured that the great challenge of the current legislature is to reach an agreement with the EU to accede to the European Economic Area (EEA), an issue that was addressed last May 20 during a telematic meeting of the head of the Andorran government with the president of the European Council, Charles Michel. The EEA brings together the EU member states and three of the four states of the European Free Trade Association (Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway) and guarantees an internal market governed by the same basic rules. Andorra’s objective, he said, is not to join the EU but to “belong to the internal market” without taking on the political, fiscal or security aspects.
At the same meeting, the Ibero-American Secretary General, Rebeca Grynspan, highlighted “the exceptional work” done by Andorra in organizing the Ibero-American Summit, in which “financing for recovery, sustainability, the environment, tourism and, of course, solidarity, multilateralism and cooperation were discussed”, and which was “one of the best summits we have had in 30 years”.
