Andorra la VellaUnanimity was very present in the last ordinary session of the General Council before the stop for the Christmas holidays. Thus, the three points that were submitted to voting have prospered with the favorable vote of all the councilors of the parliamentary chamber. This has been the case with the hunting law, which despite being a highly debated text in the legislative committee has received the support of all the parliamentary groups that have particularly emphasized the consensus reached. As claimed by the Minister of Environment, Agriculture and Livestock, Guillem Casal, the new law is “fairer, more modern, more applicable and more forceful when necessary”. In this sense, he remarked that it serves to simplify and clarify certain aspects and that, ultimately, it becomes a “very good bill”, a “leading text”.
In this way, the minister, as have also been done by the councilors who have followed him in the speaking turn, has wanted to highlight certain aspects such as the improvements in security that the law entails. Thus, it must be remembered that people who practice hunting with an alcohol level higher than 0.5 grams of alcohol per liter of blood or under the influence of drugs will commit a criminal offense that can lead to penalties of up to one year imprisonment and a fine of up to 3,000 euros. The law establishes that the controls, which can be requested by the corps of flags and carried out by the police, will be applied in three main cases: when the person hunting is involved in an accident, when he presents obvious symptoms of intoxication or when a preventive check ordered by the competent authorities. In addition to affecting this aspect of security, it was also emphasized that minors must be accompanied by someone who has a hunting permit or that to have a hunting permit you must have a gun permit.
Consensus on this point has been one of the highlights, as mentioned, and thus the non-affiliated General Counsel, VÃctor Pintos, has remarked that it has been worked “constructively, without acrimony and without discord”. In turn, the general counsel of the parliamentary group of Andorra Endavant Marcos Monteagudo has also indicated that despite having had “an intense debate” a consensus has been reached. In this sense, it should be remembered that this group did not agree, initially, with the consideration of hunting with an alcohol content of 0.5 as a criminal offense and wanted it to be set at 0.8.
In turn, the substitute president of the Social Democratic parliamentary group, Susanna Vela, has claimed the “good work” and that aspects that they had proposed have been accepted, such as that the hunting commission analyze the repopulation plans or that the regulations they deploy the law must be in three months.
For his part, Concordia’s general counsel, Pol Bartolomé, has argued that the new law “gives more guarantees to a key activity to preserve the balance of our mountains” and has valued that the text regulates the exercise between the minors to guarantee generational succession; that defines the bases of the chamois hunting plan or that a prudent distance is set with inhabited areas. Finally, the democratic councilor Berna Coma claimed that the text serves to guarantee “the balance between regulated hunting, the proper management of hunting populations and the safety of the public”.