Andorran Parties Propose Major Amendments to Justice, Data Protection, and Prison Reform Bills

**Title:** Andorran Parties Table Amendments to Multiple Bills on Justice, Data, and Prisons **Summary:** Amid ongoing parliamentary work, Demòcrates and Ciutadans Compromesos (CC) push for a dedicated judicial data oversight body, while all major parties propose changes to a penitentiary reform bill, including shorter pre-trial detention and stricter medical treatment rules. Separate talks advance on parliamentary inquiry sanctions.

**Body:** Parliamentary groups have submitted extensive amendments to several justice-related bills under discussion, including reforms to personal data handling in criminal matters and penitentiary rules, as the amendment period closes on key texts.

Demòcrates and CC, the government's supporting parties, propose replacing the Andorran Data Protection Agency (APDA) with a new Comissió de Protecció de Dades Jurisdiccionals under the Consell Superior de la Justícia (CSJ) to oversee data processing for criminal investigations, prosecutions, and public security threats. This rejects the original bill's Article 42. CC seeks an independent authority with legal personality, featuring one member each from the CSJ, government ministry, and APDA, who would appoint a president. Demòcrates prefers a CSJ-affiliated body with two CSJ representatives, a Tribunal Superior magistrate, a Tribunal de Corts judge, a batlle, and a prosecutor, focused on supervision, awareness, and control. CC submitted 82 technical amendments in a 120-page document, while Demòcrates added others. Concòrdia proposed shortening judicial data retention from 30 to 10 years; Andorra Endavant submitted none. Committee negotiations will shape the outcome.

Separately, parties have tabled changes to a qualified bill amending penitentiary and penal norms. Demòcrates' 11 amendments seek deeper cuts to pre-trial detention than the government's draft, which already shortens initial periods to eight months maximum for minor offences (four plus four) and up to 20 months for grave cases like homicide or drug trafficking via extensions. Demòcrates targets the trial phase, proposing three months maximum for minor offences and nine for major ones—yielding totals of nine months for minor and up to 21 for severe cases. It also cuts post-conviction appeal detention from 18 to eight months, requires multidisciplinary assessments for regime exceptions, prior civil court approval for non-consensual medical treatments after judicial hearings, and proportionality in asset seizures.

Concòrdia submitted 10 amendments to bolster legal safeguards and speed up procedures amid judicial backlogs. It limits forced medical treatments to cases where consent is unknowable or risks threaten life, health, or third parties, citing external reports on potential overmedication and "pharmacological restraints" at the prison. The party defends retaining arrest penalties over prison for offences like drug-impaired driving, refusing tests, or theft to aid reintegration, and allows retroactive application if more favourable. It also streamlines disciplinary processes by removing immediate justification for denying non-appealable inmate tests, aligning with CSJ recommendations.

The Partit Socialdemòcrata (PS) registered 22 amendments, pushing even shorter trial-phase detention—two months for minor offences and six for major—and limiting isolation cells to eight days from 14, arguing longer periods undermine discipline and raise administrative burdens.

In parallel, groups near agreement on Consell General regulations to make inquiry commission appearances mandatory, with mild coercive penalties for non-attendance, refusal to answer, or lying—potentially codified in the Penal Code. Opposition pushes for transparency like asset declarations face resistance, though interest statements are discussed. The reform aims for approval this year, with a political orientation debate format change eyed for late June.