Andorra · Games of the Small States of Europe

The Games of the Small States of Europe are an international multisport event for European countries with small populations. As a general rule, states with fewer than one million inhabitants that have a National Olympic Committee recognized by the International Olympic Committee are eligible to participate. The participants include Andorra, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Montenegro, San Marino and Cyprus. The fact that Cyprus now has more than one million inhabitants does not affect its participation as a founding member.

The first Games were held in San Marino in 1985. Since then, they have usually been held every two years. The role of host rotates among the participating states. The programme is based on Olympic sports, but is adapted to the organizational capabilities of the respective host country. The event provides athletes from small countries with additional international competition experience, as their teams at major championships often comprise only a few people.

For Andorra, this was the third time it had hosted the Games, after 1991 and 2005. The Principality in the Pyrenees has only a small population and therefore a limited pool of elite athletes. Nevertheless, it takes part in the Olympic Games with its own National Olympic Committee. Winter sports are particularly prominent due to the mountainous location; at the Games of the Small States, however, the focus is primarily on indoor, stadium and other summer sports.

The 2025 issue also fell in the fortieth year since the first event. For Andorra, hosting the Games was an international event in which almost all European microstates with their own Olympic delegations participated. The choice of the event as the coin’s subject thus refers both to a specific event in the country and to Andorra’s position within this group of small European states. The low mintage corresponds to the limited size of Andorra’s coin-issuing area.