A historic diplomatic step. But the agreement’s significance extends beyond the signing ceremony: it offers a different model of European integration.
There is a tendency to discuss European integration as a binary choice. A country is either in the European Union or out of it. Reality has always been more complicated.
On 19 October, San Marino and Andorra signed an association agreement with the European Union in Brussels, after more than a decade of negotiations.
In her article “L’Europa chiama, San Marino risponde: firmato l’accordo di associazione dopo 11 anni di negoziati. ‘Pietra miliare’”, Donatella Filippi captures the importance of the moment for San Marino and its relationship with the European Union.
The European External Action Service describes the agreement as a major step towards closer economic and institutional cooperation.
The framework aims to allow the two microstates to participate in the EU internal market under common rules and agreed conditions.
Neither country is joining the EU. And the signature itself does not mean that every practical change takes effect immediately. Formal approval and implementation processes still matter.
That distinction is essential if we want to understand what this agreement actually means.
The economics of being small
San Marino is surrounded by Italy. Andorra sits between France and Spain.
Both have longstanding economic relationships with much larger neighbours, but operate through their own institutions and legal systems.
For companies and professionals, borders create costs that are not always visible in headline trade figures: administrative differences, regulatory uncertainty, recognition of requirements and the time needed to determine which rules apply.
Closer integration can make these questions more predictable.
That is the promise of association with the single market. The precise benefits will depend on the agreement’s scope, phased arrangements and domestic implementation.
The European Commission also signed updated monetary agreements with both states, addressing overlaps with the new association framework.
Monetary integration, commercial access and EU membership are different legal questions. Treating them as synonyms would obscure the substance of the deal.
An alternative path to integration
For the EU, the agreement demonstrates that integration is not limited to accession.
There are institutional arrangements under which neighbouring states can participate in elements of the internal market while retaining their separate constitutional identities.
That flexibility is politically attractive, but not cost-free.
Market access comes with rules, supervision and commitments. The closer a non-member moves to a common regulatory framework, the more questions arise about participation in decisions affecting that framework.
The agreement must therefore be assessed as a long-term institutional design, not a ceremonial photograph from Brussels.
Why Italy should pay attention
For Italy, San Marino is not a distant diplomatic case.
It is a neighbouring economy whose businesses, workers, visitors and institutions interact with the surrounding Italian territory.
Changes to market access and regulatory coordination may ultimately matter to those cross-border relationships.
But it would be premature to promise a particular benefit to a company, worker or investor before the applicable provisions and implementation calendar are clear.
That is perhaps the most useful lesson of the agreement: European integration is often less about flags and grand declarations than about removing friction from ordinary economic activity.
The microstates are small enough to be overlooked in debates about Europe’s future.
They are also unusually clear examples of the choices involved in belonging economically to a larger system without joining it politically.
THE ITALIC TAKE
Europe is not only a map of members and non-members. It is a network of different degrees of economic and institutional belonging.
The San Marino–Andorra agreement may prove important not because two small countries suddenly became European — they always were — but because Europe is learning how to make that belonging work in more than one way.