At a time when the challenge to formalize an association agreement with the EU is faced, it can not be ruled out that public procurement is an instrument of great influence in our economy, since the award of a public contract has a direct repercussion on the market.

Therefore, public administrations should be aware that this is a tool that directly influences the economy of the country in general and the competitiveness of Andorran companies in particular. That is, every time a public contract is awarded, this fact has a direct impact on the economic reality of the companies that have presented themselves to the tender, and also those that do not.

While it is true that public procurement procedures in the EU are carried out on the basis of national standards, the general principles of the EU in terms of transparency and equal treatment must always be respected. In the case of higher value contracts, these standards are usually the EU general public procurement. And this is because public procurement is a very powerful tool of public institutions, also exemplifying, which guarantees respect for community freedoms.

Andorra, with a public procurement rule of the year 2000 and a recent regulation on electronic administration that has a strong impact on the field of public procurement, has a long way to go to adapt to EU standards .

It is good news the approval of recent regulations, such as Law 13/2019, of February 15, for equal treatment and non-discrimination, which incorporates the need for public administrations to promote inclusion of social clauses aimed at eradicating social inequalities in the public procurement of works and services, with the aim of involving and co-responsibility the business sector in the fight against inequalities and at the same time encouraging socially responsible public procurement. These social clauses should be included, as far as possible, as a criterion for the award of public sector contracts and as a special condition for the execution of the work or service.

However, if we want to approve the system that governs in the most advanced countries, the Andorran public procurement model will require a deeper transformation, not only from a regulatory point of view, but also of practical applicability . And the challenge is not easy, but the new normative corpus of Andorran public procurement must ensure that Andorran companies can be competitive in bidding with the administration, in an open market, which is ensured by their extensive experience and the geographic and social reality of the country itself.

And leaving aside the future association agreement with the EU, it would be necessary to reflect on the improvement of the existing public procurement procedures, since Andorran companies are fully prepared so that the public administration applies these processes of transparency and equal treatment in the Public procurement, which are the essence not only of the EU, but also of the most advanced countries from a social and economic point of view.