Andorra Economy and History

ECONOMY

The valley landscape is marked by fields of cereals, potatoes and vegetables; there are also numerous tobacco fields, the production of which feeds a manufacture of cigars and cigarettes for export. The primary sector, in continuous decline (using only 0.4% of the workforce), is based on backward structures; in any case Andorra does not have large agricultural resources and depends on imports to meet its food needs. Of greater economic importance is the breeding of cattle and sheep, which in summer go up to the high pastures where the orrys are found ., characteristic huts. An additional source of income is traditionally connected to this, such as the rent of pastures to the transhumant shepherds of the Meseta and Ebro, who have frequented the Andorran mountains for centuries. According to allcountrylist, there is no shortage of hydroelectric resources, which also feed a small item of exports, as well as small deposits of iron and marble; but for most of the industrial productions the dependence on foreign countries (France and Spain) is total: the industrial and handicraft activities of Andorra mostly concern the production of articles for tourists and are mainly located in Sant Juliá de Loria. The main axis of communications is the road that leads from Spain to France; there are no railway lines or airports: for them Andorra depends on neighboring countries, to whose stations it is connected by bus. The trade balance is mainly supported by tourism (3,387,000 visitors in 2002), in particular by the border one, attracted by the possibility of making profitable purchases. Since customs duties are almost absent in Andorra, it is possible to buy electronic devices, sports equipment, clothing and perfumes, but above all petrol, spirits and cigarettes at good prices. In addition to Andorra, which is linked to France by a customs union and to Spain by a postal union, banking and commercial activities are widespread thanks to the status of tax haven: in 2000 the Since customs duties are almost absent in Andorra, it is possible to buy electronic devices, sports equipment, clothing and perfumes, but above all petrol, spirits and cigarettes at good prices. In addition to Andorra, which is linked to France by a customs union and to Spain by a postal union, banking and commercial activities are widespread thanks to the status of tax haven: in 2000 the Since customs duties are almost absent in Andorra, it is possible to buy electronic devices, sports equipment, clothing and perfumes, but above all petrol, spirits and cigarettes at good prices. In addition to Andorra, which is linked to France by a customs union and to Spain by a postal union, banking and commercial activities are widespread thanks to the status of tax haven: in 2000 the OECD has censured the country for the excessive financial benefits favored by the rules that protect banking secrecy, but the legislation on the matter has not yet been changed. In 2008, the country’s GDP was US $ 3,712 million.

HISTORY

A popular pass since ancient times, the Andorra valley was crossed by Carthaginians and Romans, Vandals and Swabians, Visigoths and Arabs and was one of the first regions reconquered by Charlemagne’s Franks . Ludovico il Pio granted privileges to the first Christian repopulators of the valley, giving the territory borders very similar to the current ones and entrusting its lordship, with ample powers of government, to the bishop of Urgel (819). At the beginning of the century. XI, threatened by the ambitions of the counts of Urgel, the bishops ceded the lordship to the Caboet family, from which it passed by testament to the Castellbó (1156). In 1203, without ceasing to be a fief of the bishop of Urgel, Andorra passed, by marriage, to the house of the Foix. But the hostilities did not cease, until the agreement, known as the Pariatges, was signed on 2 September 1278 between Ruggero Bernardo III di Foix and Père d’Urg, bishop of the diocese of Urgel, by virtue of which the “co-principality” was born, without prejudice to the privileges of the General Council. The rights of lordship of the Foix subsequently passed to the royal house of France and to the president of the French Republic and the bishop of Urgel he remained “cop-prince”. From a legal point of view, it was a unique case of “condominium” that presented several problems in international law. In fact, Andorra lacked the fullness of the legal personality of a State and therefore could not have diplomatic relations with foreign powers: to represent its interests was France. The bishop of Urgel and the head of the French state were not sovereigns in the technical sense of the term: they only received, in alternate years, a symbolic tribute. Their representatives were the episcopal veguer and the veguer of France: one of the vicars general of the diocese of Urgel and the prefect of the French department of the Western Pyrenees were the respective permanent delegates for Andorran affairs. The administrative and internal legal systems were reformed by an episcopal law of 22 April 1866, ratified by the French government on 12 April 1868. The distinction between the bodies responsible for the exercise of legislative and executive powers was introduced only in 1981, having previously been reunited in the General Council. In the last decade of the century. XX the feudal residues present in the small state of the Pyrenees disappeared. In fact, in February 1993 the General Council unanimously approved the first constitutional project in the history of Andorra, whose sovereignty, until then, it had been exercised jointly by France (through the prefect of the department of the Western Pyrenees) and by the Spanish bishopric of Urgel. By implementing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the new Constitutional Charter, while formally retaining the state of principality, assigned sovereignty directly to the people who exercised it by electing the General Council of the Valleys, the highest legislative body composed of 28 members, with the power of appointment of the executive. In the same year the country was admitted to the it assigned sovereignty directly to the people who exercised it by electing the General Council of the Valleys, the highest legislative body made up of 28 members, with the power to appoint the executive. In the same year the country was admitted to the it assigned sovereignty directly to the people who exercised it by electing the General Council of the Valleys, the highest legislative body made up of 28 members, with the power to appoint the executive. In the same year the country was admitted to the UN. Approved in a referendum in the following March, the Constitution was also accepted by the two “principals”. Oscar Ribas Reig was the first president of the government, replaced in 1994 by Marc Forné Molné, reconfirmed in 1997 and 2001.