Yearbook 2002
Andorra. In April, the OECD identified Andorra as one of seven tax havens who, despite pressure, refused to disclose bank account information. The seven countries were accused of failing to comply with transparency and effective exchange of information on financial flows. According to Countryaah website, national day of Andorra is every September 8. The OECD threatened with sanctions. The EU also pushed on this issue.
History. – When the Frankish kings, fighting with the Saracens, founded on the NE borders. of Spain a certain number of counties, grouped them under the name of “Spanish brand”. In that area, there has been Andorra since the Carolingian era. In the deeds of the consecration of the church of Urgel, made by Louis the Pious in the year 819, among the parishes forming the endowment of said church, the name of Andorra, with its lands and villages, appears. It is under the jurisdiction of the Counts of Urgel; but from documents of different epochs it appears that these accounts held the territories only as vassals of the bishop of Urgel. Who, however, in order to defend the rich patrimony of his church from the greed of neighboring lords, and to curb his rebel subjects, not having military forces at his disposal, later he had to look for someone who knew how to defend him. He found support in the Caboet family. In fact, it appears that Guglielmo Guitardo de Caboet, in 1110, declared himself vassal of the bishop of Urgel for the territory of Andorra; and in 1150, Mirone, brother of Guglielmo, claimed to hold that fief in the name of the bishop. Another recognition of the lordship of the bishops is found in the will of Raimondo di Caboet, son of Mirone, in 1156; finally, in 1159, Arnaldo in turn paid homage to the bishop and passed on his rights to his own daughter Emerinda di Castelbó, wife of the count of Foix. At the beginning of the century XIII, the Andorranians, represented by 30 residents of each parish, solemnly recognized the sovereignty of the bishops of Urgel; and, in 1231, one of these, Pontius de Villamet,
The treaties between the counts of Foix and the bishops of Urgel continued until 1278, the year in which the most important document in the political history of Andorra dates back. It is an arbitration agreement (called pariatge) between the count of Foix, heir to the rights of the CaboetCastelbó, and the bishop of Urgel. In that public deed, the arbitrators specify the rights of each of the parties: they will, on the other hand, receive the accounts for most of the taxes and will be able to hold a vicar as their representative in the valleys of Andorra, but the administration will be exercised equally by the two contractors; the counts of Foix, in their own name and their successors, acknowledge that they hold Andorra as a fief from the church of Urgel and therefore pay homage to its bishop, and so will their descendants. This arbitration sentence was pronounced in the city of Urgel, on 7 September 1278, and was ratified, signed and promulgated by the arbitrators, by the interested parties, by King Peter of Aragon, as guarantor, and by many other distinguished persons; it was sealed by a public notary. Pope Martin V also confirmed it in October 1288. The rights of the counts of Foix then passed to the princes of Béarn and king of Navarre; nor was Ferdinand the Catholic able to acquire the rights to Andorra from Spain by marrying Germana di Foix (1505), since, since there were no children from the marriage, the rights returned to the d’Albret, king of Navarre. And so, having ascended Henry of Navarre to the throne of France (Henry IV), Andorra came to depend on France with the other dominions of the counts of Foix (edict of 1607). During the revolution the French did not want to accept the tax, nor to exercise condominium; but in the Napoleonic period it returned to its former state.
