Eduardo González
Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares met this Thursday with his Andorran counterpart, Imma Tor, to discuss the negotiations between Andorra and the European Union for the signing of the Association Agreement and the Border Management Agreement, both scheduled for 2026.
Albares received Imma Tor this Thursday, December 18, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs headquarters in the Palacio de Viana, Madrid. During the meeting, according to a press release from the Ministry, the Minister conveyed Spain’s support to his counterpart for Andorra’s integration into the European Union in the current context of “modernizing the Andorran economic model and adapting its immigration regime to EU rules.”
Separately, the two ministers reviewed the issues of greatest interest to both countries, including the progress of the bilateral working group on migration issues, the prospects for the Association Agreement and the Border Management Agreement between the EU and Andorra, cross-border cooperation, and the implementation of the Entry/Exit System (EES).
The EES came into force last October and obliges countries with external borders of the Schengen Area, such as France and Spain, to apply this regulation at some of their border points.
However, Andorran citizens are currently exempt from these controls, which apply only to non-EU citizens, pending negotiations on the Border Management Agreement between the EU and Andorra. The objective of this agreement is precisely to modulate the application of the new Entry/Exit border control system so that Andorrans are exempt from these controls. Negotiations for the agreement began in September 2024 and are quite advanced.
The Spanish Interior Minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, confirmed this week to his Andorran counterpart, Ester Molné, that Spain “plans to definitively activate” the Entry-Exit system “in April 2026,” which will allow travelers to bypass border controls during the winter season.
In any case, the signing of the Border Management Agreement cannot be finalized before 2026 either, which is “a reassuring message,” since, “in April, when the Entry-Exit System comes into effect, this agreement with Europe will be finalized,” declared Xavier Espot, Head of Government of Andorra, to the Andorran television network RTVA. The general outlines of the agreement are already finalized and include, among other things, a double-filter control system for new arrivals based on “the Schengen Area databases,” according to Molné.
Association Agreement
Furthermore, in 2015, negotiations began between Andorra and the EU for a new Association Agreement that would allow the Principality to access the European Economic Area (EEA), the framework that brings together all EU Member States and three of the four European Free Trade Association States (Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway) and guarantees an internal market regulated by the same basic rules. The EU’s negotiations with Andorra were linked to those it had conducted with two other small states, Monaco and San Marino.
In accordance with the 2014 negotiating guidelines, the Association Agreement will take into account the particular situation of Andorra (and San Marino), as well as their specific characteristics arising from their close ties with two EU Member States, their geography, and their small size. All of this will be reflected in a series of adaptations, as well as several transitional periods for the implementation and application of parts of the EU acquis.
In December 2023, the Government of Andorra and the European Commission successfully concluded negotiations for the Association Agreement between the Principality and the European Union after almost nine years of talks. The agreement was announced in Brussels during the last General Council meeting of the previous Spanish Presidency of the Council of the EU (second half of 2023).
For the Association Agreement to enter into force, it will require the approval of the 27 EU Member States and its ratification in Andorra through a binding referendum. On Tuesday, Espot told the press in his country that it is highly unlikely the Council of the European Union will reach a consensus on the legal nature of the text during the Danish Presidency, which ends at the end of the year, and that the issue will be passed on to the Cypriot Presidency starting in January. However, he specified that the discussions are already well advanced and that the EU Council is expected to unanimously approve the signing of the text during the first quarter of 2026. The government also plans to approve the referendum call during the first quarter of 2026.