Andorran Councillor Proposes Amendments for Unrestricted Banking Data Access

Pere Baró Rocamonde, general councillor and deputy president of the Social Democratic Parliamentary Group, has proposed amendments to the bill amending Law 7/2021 on the recovery and resolution of banking entities and investment firms.

The changes, tabled on Tuesday, seek to secure unrestricted access for general councillors to reserved data held by the State Agency for the Resolution of Banking Entities (AREB) and the Andorran Financial Authority (AFA) when performing parliamentary oversight duties. Baró's proposals include an explicit provision stating that AREB's data reservations do not apply to councillors in their official roles. A similar adjustment targets the secrecy rules in the law governing the Andorran National Institute of Finance.

According to a Social Democratic Party statement, the amendments would prevent confidentiality obligations from AREB and AFA from hindering the General Council's functions of control, promotion, and scrutiny. Baró describes access to information as a "cornerstone of the democratic system" and essential for effective parliamentary oversight of the government and its dependent entities, in line with Article 50 of the Constitution. He argues that such legal restrictions effectively remove certain issues from democratic scrutiny, clashing with the principle of separation of powers.

The push stems from AREB's ongoing refusal to provide details on the intervened BPA bank, despite repeated demands from the Court of Accounts and parliamentarians. This has exposed rifts between the Social Democrats and Concòrdia, on one side, and the government and parliamentary majority, on the other, over sharing such information. The bill remains under review in Andorra la Vella.