The Archives from 2014 news around Andorra as it was!
Let`s see what happened or in most cases what has not!
18th September 2014 - Agreement on Double Taxation with Spain
The sticking point on negotiations on a treaty between Spain and Andorra was the absolute insistence by Spain of an automatic exchange of fiscal information between the two countries. Spain has now agreed not to pursue this but rather to wait for the matter to be included in the directives from the OECD, the principles which Andorra has signed up to from 2017. The door is now open for the signing of a treaty this December during the visit of Mariano Rajoy, the Spanish President in December 2014. This will be the first ever visit to Andorra by an incumbent Spanish President. All of this comes in the middle of the controversy surrounding the accounts of former President of Catalonia’s Generalitat Jordi Pujol and his children in Andorran banks and the judicial actions underway. Official sources denied that this was discussed between Rajoy and the head of Government Antoni Marti in their meeting yesterday at Moncloa Palace in Madrid.
10 September 2014- Referendum, now Andorra is talking about it!!
Whether by coincidence or not following on from my previous articles it seems that at the meeting by the Head of Government with the Pope at the Vatican the Pope steadfastly has refused any change on the abortion laws here. It has now been suggested at a high level that Andorra should consider a referendum on this matter and while doing so the cat appears to have escaped the bag in that a Minister suggested one step further and have a full referendum on the future political setup of the country. It may just be that it is time for Andorra to become one of the world's newest Republics rather than the historical quirk of the co-princeps. Just how much this idea becomes a hot topic will be very interesting. POST NOTE: The Head of Government and many leading politicians were very quick to slap that down stating that the current status quo has led to many centuries of successful co-existence.
07 September 2014- Referendum fever
Whilst the global community stares in disbelief as to why the 300 year old successful union of the United Kingdom should ever want to rip itself apart, the referendum day for Catalunya also fast approacheth. In this case though the polls indicate a clear YES (depending on which polls you believe), but without any provision in Spanish law either for the referendum or independence so there will be some hard bargaining. Some Andorran Ministers have offered support for Catalunya but in reality it is unlikely to affect Andorra even if Spanish tanks do encircle Barcelona!? Perhaps the pretender to the throne of Scotland King Alex 1st who is about to be offered virtually full autonomy as a last ditch attempt by the NO campaigners to keep together the Union should suddenly urge his YES followers to vote NO the night before, full autonomy after all is really what most Scottish people wanted in the first place.
06th September 2014- IRPF or no IRPF, That is the question.
A former Counsellor Eusebi Nomen has announced that he has a long list of serving and former Ministers who are against both the IRPF (new income tax from 2015) and the automatic sharing of financial information which Spain has made obligatory for them to sign a double taxation treaty with Andorra. He says that both steps are steps backward and he will stand in the 2015 elections together with this yet unknown list of supporters on an anti IRPF and double taxation treaty platform. It is well known that there are grave misgivings on the course that Andorra has chosen at the highest levels and he is to offer a new direction. The Liberals have also jumped on the band wagon being against the IRPF. This is all very interesting and promising but without knowing the new direction and what effect that would cause on the global overlords it remains to be seen if this could become a feasible alternative.
28th January 2014 The Great Arinsal Cash Machine Mystery
Will the person(s) who stole the Andbank cash machine from it's long standing position in Arinsal kindly replace it as soon as possible as it is causing considerable inconvenience to long standing users. I am trying to ascertain from Andbank whether they intend to run a personal cash delivery service to Arinsal in the interim but it does not seem optimistic, nor does the prospect of any replacement. If anyone would like to start a pressure group to campaign for re-instatement please feel free to do so !
23rd January 2014 "Unlimited" downloads over fibre optics.
As of the 1st of this month subscribers to Andorra Telecom's fibre optic internet package ( applicable to the €39 per month or more tariff) will now enjoy 150 Gb of downloads monthly at the top speed of "up to" 100 Mb/s. After that quota has been reached the speed slows dramatically to the old ADSL download rate. Many people were caught out last year with some serious bills after the old download limit of 120 Gb was exceeded, no-one appeared to inform the user once the limit was reached and for 1€ each Gb over the top, the bills added up. What they did not make clear (and still have not) is that not only do downloads count but also very importantly so do the uploads. So for a couple of kids on a file sharing platform that was left permanently on the limit was easily breached: Now although it will be free to go over the 150 Gb, it will be so slow that the kids may even lose interest!!