General Council rejects Concòrdia consent bill, defers to Penal Code reform

The General Council voted 17–10, with no abstentions, to reject admission for processing of a Concòrdia bill that would have redefined sexual consent, raised the age of consent from 14 to 16 and strengthened criminal protections for minors. Deputies from Demòcrates and Ciutadans Compromesos joined the government majority in opposing the proposal; Concòrdia, the Social Democrats (PS) and Andorra Endavant voted in favour.

Justice and Interior Minister Ester Molné and majority deputies said the decision was motivated by the executive’s ongoing, comprehensive reform of the Penal Code, which the government says is in the final drafting phase and will be submitted to the General Council in January 2026. Molné told the chamber the government project has already been sent to the Superior Council of Justice, which issued the mandatory report, and offered to share police figures that she said show some categories of sexual offences have remained stable or fallen.

Concòrdia’s text was structured around three main blocks: a new legal definition of sexual consent, a specific penal regime for offences against minors, and adjustments to the regulation of pimping and prostitution. Sponsors argued the changes were needed in response to rising reports of sexual offences and to bring Andorran law into line with international standards. Concòrdia deputy president Núria Segués described the rejection as a blockade of a “necessary” debate, called keeping the age of consent at 14 “an anomaly” that leaves minors exposed, and warned this was the ninth initiative from her group not taken into consideration.

Opposition deputies and some outside speakers urged the executive to use Concòrdia’s draft as a starting point for cross‑party work. PS deputy Laia Moliné said the proposal introduced “indispensable” improvements and aligned with international trends. Andorra Endavant leader Carine Montaner pressed for tougher penalties and faster action, arguing that if there is broad agreement on the substance, parliamentary work should start rather than wait for the full reform.

Majority deputies acknowledged sharing many of the bill’s objectives but defended the decision to defer to a single, unified Penal Code reform to ensure legal and technical coherence and to avoid piecemeal amendments that might later be superseded. Demòcrates’ Salomó Benlluch and other majority speakers argued that the government’s project will be “much broader and more complete,” addressing corporate criminal liability, expanded child‑pornography offences and other structural changes to sexual‑offence provisions.

The debate highlighted persistent tension between the desire to move quickly on child protection and the government’s insistence on awaiting a comprehensive, orderly revision of the Penal Code. Segués and other opposition members asked why a text that, according to Concòrdia, PS and even government reports shares key elements with the executive’s own project should be refused admission rather than used as a working base.

In the same plenary session, deputies unanimously approved amendments to the law on the automatic exchange of fiscal information to align Andorra with new international standards; Finance Minister Ramon Lladós said the principality currently exchanges tax information with 114 countries and the updated rules will add 12 more. The chamber also ratified, by assent, a double taxation convention with Estonia and unanimously validated a right‑to‑be‑forgotten health law protecting people who have recovered from serious illnesses from discrimination in insurance and financial products, alongside an updated insurance contract law and a new multi‑year statistics plan.