Thanks a lot, Marcel, for this nice piece of information.

Reading the treaty, there are some things I find really interesting:

In the 4th point of the 1st article, it is said that the �public
network� in the parts to be exchanged remain the property of the public
bodies that already have it in property. In an explanatory speech
rendered by the French minister for foreign affairs V�drine before the
French senate, it becomes clear that with �public network� some water
conduit pipes are meant. So apparently the water mains on the part of
the territory that will be handed over to France will stay the property
of the Andorran water authority (whatever authority that is), and vice
versa. In this part of art. 1, the right of access to the equipment for
maintenance is also assured to the respective authorities. By the way,
it appears, according to Jean-Yves Gateaud, reporting on the treaty in
the French house of representatives, that it basically only concerns
Andorran water mains and other equipment (sewers, drainage, electricity
and glass fibre cabling). For France, the preservation of the right of
way for cattle on the territory that becomes Andorran is the important
issue.

Now this is all very well, but I find it a bit contrasting with what it
says in article 3: That the proprietors of the portion that becomes
French will lose their property and are compensated by getting the
portion that becomes Andorran, and v.v. Luckily, there are only two
proprietors involved here, namely the French municipality of Porta and
the Andorran parish of Encamp (as explained by Hubert V�drine). It is
understandable, and it would be a lot weirder when private proprietors
were involved here. But still the municipality of Porta will have
Andorran-owned and maintained water mains on its territory, and the
parish of Encamp will have water mains of Porta on its land. I can
imagine that there are practical reasons for all of this, but it still
is a bit odd� Mr. Gateaud states that since the areas are private
property of public bodies, the exchange of property still needs to be
executed in front of notaries in France and Andorra, before the treaty
can come into force.

The part that becomes Andorran territory is needed for the connecting
road between the tunnel and the roundabout, apparently because it is
solely Andorra that builds and finances this road. The part that France
gets in exchange is advantageous to France, too, according to G�rard
Roujas, the expert from the Senate Commission for Foreign Affairs,
because France gets part of the left river bank of the Ari�ge river, in
this way enabling it to keep an eye on its course. The problem was that
the French accused Andorra of earthing up that bank, in this way
altering the course of the river, which was the boundary here (the
boundary not being delimited, but only defined as �the line of the
mountain ridge� or �the course of the river� by centuries-old custom).

And about Porta now getting 40000 euros: they were worried that, as a
result of the exchange, their municipality would be cut in two (still
according to Mr. Gateaud), and they would have to travel via Andorra to
get to the part of the municipality which some of us would call a
pene-enclave (not physically divided, but unable to be reached by
road). Now maybe these 40000 euros will go some way towards financing a
new link to that part of Porta.

Source: http://www.senat.fr/dossierleg/pjl00-260.html and the links on
this page.

Peter S.

--- marcelmiquel@... wrote:

> I have posted before about the land exhange between Andorra and
> France, near the tripoint, who was agreed in order to build the new
> Envalira tunnel. As you know, the french-andorran border is not fixed
>
> by a treaty, and there are many disputed zones. The municipality of
> Porta was not consulted about this exchange and they were worried
> because the new road divided several zones. Now, Andorra will pay
> 40.000 euros to Porta, and the conflict will be solved.
>
> Traslated from an andorran journal:
>
> �The resolution of the conlict between Andorra and the municipality
> of
> Porta is not the end of the boundary andorran/french dispute. Enric
> Pujal ( minister of the Andorran government ) explained that as well
>
> the french electoral process will be finished, the special boundary
> comission will continue the meetings in order to solve the boundary
> conflict (�)
>
> At this moment, the two governments agree to divide the Abelletes
> lake
> and to partage the water resources. Very soon, they will discuss the
> border among the peaks form the lake to the tripoint.�
>
> So, perhaps very soon there will be a boundary treaty that will solve
>
> our headaches.
>
>
> The link to the newspaper ,with a photo : ( please, paste the lines )
>
> http://www.elperiodico.com/EDICION/ED020510/
> CAS/CARP04/PDF/pag006.pdf
>
> Finally, you can see the boundary exchange treaty in .pdf format It�s
>
> very curious because it�s the original treaty, with the signatures of
>
> the andorran prime minister and the french ambassador:
>
> http://www.doc.diplomatie.gouv.fr/BASISCGI/BASIS/
> pacte/webext/bilat/DDD/20000089.pdf
>
> ( sorry, but you have to paste the lines )
>
> Marcel
>
>
>
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