The event was attended by the Secretary of State for Economic Diversification and Innovation, Josep María Missé, the director of ADI (Actua-Invest in Andorra), Judit Hidalgo, the director of the ActuaTech Foundation (Actua-Innovating in Andorra), Marc Pons, and the director of Nice Fruit, José María Roger.
The speakers presented different areas such as the Government’s economic policies, including the economic opening and diversification strategy, its commitment to the innovation sector’s development, and the establishment of new companies in the country, among others.
The aim of this meeting was to present the guidelines that will mark Andorra’s future to members of the EFTA Group. For two days, some thirty members of this working group participated in multiple events to discover Andorra’s different aspects, such as political, economic, social, cultural and tourist spheres.
Equality for Andorran citizens in the European internal market.
The Andorran Head of Government, Antoni Martí inaugurated the EFTA Group Congress in the morning. In his speech, he emphasized Andorra’s relationship with Europe goes beyond geography and is above all, due to the shared values, such as democracy, equality, rights and individual freedoms. He also presented the process of economic opening, to European delegates. This process, promoted by the Government in 2012, allows foreign residents to participate economically in the Principality under the same conditions as Andorran residents. On the other hand, he spoke of efforts to achieve reciprocal equality for Andorran citizens in the European internal market.
Antoni Martí stressed that access to the European internal market is justified because it is our natural economic space, hence allowing the Andorran business sector to open up to the world, and thus build through internationalisation, new economic pillars that coexist with the traditional sectors of the Principality. In this regard, the head of government defended the particularities of Andorra in the association agreement with Europe, which are determined by the territorial and social dimensions of the country and its geographical location. Martí called for these factors to be understood by the European Union.
