Andorra Delegation at Ibero-American Forum Urges AI Rules, Fights Populism and Gender Gap

A delegation from Andorra's Consell General, led by Síndic General Carles Ensenyat, took part in the 12th Ibero-American Parliamentary Forum in Madrid on Thursday and Friday. The gathering, held at Spain's Congress of Deputies and Senate ahead of the Ibero-American Summit of heads of state and government, focused on bolstering parliamentary diplomacy, upholding democratic values across the region, and tackling shared geopolitical issues.

Talks centred on four main areas: artificial intelligence's impact on legislatures, threats to democracy from polarisation, disinformation, fragmentation, and populism, steps to address gender disparities in parliaments and beyond, and the value of parliamentary diplomacy.

Andorra, which joined the Ibero-American Community in 2005, was represented by Ensenyat alongside conselleres generals Berna Coma, Carine Montaner, Laia Moliné, and Núria Segués. During a plenary at the Congress reviewing working group outcomes, Ensenyat argued that AI cannot take the place of lawmakers, as it lacks the capacity for deliberation, citizen representation, or generating political legitimacy. He urged the establishment of precise rules defining its boundaries and assigning accountability.

On challenges like polarisation and populism, Ensenyat underscored parliaments' central role in constitutional frameworks and pushed for increased openness, stronger public engagement, and broader consensus-building across parties. Regarding gender equality, he called for measures extending past mere numerical balance, such as sufficient resources and structural changes to turn legislation into tangible progress.

Delegates also endorsed parliamentary diplomacy as an extension of executive work, agreeing to build lasting cooperation mechanisms and better alignment.

The Andorran group joined all four Senate working sessions on Thursday—one of just a handful of delegations to submit amendments to the conclusions. These proposals, covering AI regulation (Montaner), risks from polarisation, disinformation, fragmentation, and populism (Segués), gender inequality (Moliné), and parliamentary diplomacy's special relevance for Andorra (Coma, who chairs the Foreign Policy Legislative Commission), were all approved by the secretariat and fellow participants.