Concòrdia Files 15 Amendments to Andorra Disability Rights Bill

Concòrdia has filed around fifteen amendments to the qualified law on the rights of persons with disabilities currently before the General Council, seeking to strengthen protections and speed up administrative procedures. The parliamentary group said its aim is a system that is "more agile, accessible and adapted to the different realities" of people with disabilities and those around them.

A central amendment would require that the core elements for making disability rights effective be fixed in the law itself, with regulations limited to setting out procedures and conditions of application. "The essential questions for making the rights of people with disabilities effective must be fixed in the legislative text itself, so that they do not depend on the Government's regulatory development," Concòrdia said.

Another key proposal would separate the legal recognition of a disability from the assessment of a person's capabilities and support needs, so that someone certified as needing educational, rehabilitative or social support could access it without first holding a recognised disability grade. The party proposes keeping the current minimum threshold of 33% for recognition as a person with disability, as the existing law provides, arguing this offers greater legal certainty while ensuring the percentage is not the only route to certain forms of support.

Under the proposal, provisional support could be activated in urgent, certified cases while the assessment process is completed, avoiding a situation where assistance depends on an administrative recognition that can take time to arrive. Concòrdia says the distinction matters particularly for children and adolescents who may need specific support in certain areas without being legally recognised as having a disability.

The group wants the National Assessment Commission (Conava) to have a maximum of two months to assess each case and issue a proposed resolution, with priority for urgent situations. The commission currently meets only once a month, which has generated waiting lists. Concòrdia describes the deadline as a pivotal point of its amendments, with the goal that the system responds more quickly and that no one is left unattended while awaiting a resolution.

The amendments also call for the distinction between the grade-of-disability assessment and the evaluation of capabilities and support needs to be clearly set out in law, even if both can be carried out jointly when a person's circumstances require it. To ensure a comprehensive evaluation, they propose reinforced multidisciplinary teams with sufficient staffing, and an interoperable information system linking the departments and services involved in disability assessment to avoid duplication and ease the updating of information.

On support provision, Concòrdia maintains that assistance should be tailored to each person's needs and remain in place as long as it is required, rather than being withdrawn automatically because of a change in circumstances or results achieved. In education, it wants to prevent academic performance from being treated as sufficient grounds to deny, reduce or withdraw support. "Good school performance is not, in itself, an indication that support is no longer needed," the party argues. It also calls for continuity of support across educational stages—particularly the transition to higher education—as well as in nursery schools and leisure spaces. The government would be required to ensure specialised staff, if necessary through accredited specialised entities such as the Fundació Privada Nostra Senyora de Meritxell, always in coordination with the communes.

In the workplace, the amendments would make it easier for people to return to work gradually without automatically losing the support they receive, so as to encourage autonomy and restore professional capacity without removing resources still needed.

Concòrdia also proposes continuous monitoring and evaluation, with specific indicators on the situation of persons with disabilities feeding into the permanent work of the National Disability Observatory (OND), which would publish an annual report, alongside an external evaluation every four years to measure policy results and introduce improvements where needed. To protect people during the transition from the current system to the new model, eventual reviews would be individualised and justified, so that the regulatory change does not automatically entail the loss of recognised disability grades, benefits or support.

Finally, the amendments would shorten the deadline for implementing regulations on the Conava, the OND and early retirement for premature ageing to six months, and to one year for other matters, to ensure the law is deployed quickly.