Dutch Parliamentary debate on constitutional restructuring

August 13, 2010 11:48 AM

THE HAGUE--The Dutch Parliament will have one final debate on the constitutional restructuring of the Netherlands Antilles before the final Round Table Conference (RTC) on September 9.

Chairman of the Second Chamber's Permanent Committee of Antillean and Aruban Affairs NAAZ Willibrord van Beek confirmed that a number of parties wanted a debate with the State Secretary before giving her a mandate for the RTC.

That mandate has to do with the so-called Implementation Kingdom Decree. Without that decree, in which the Second Chamber has the last say, the Kingdom Law to amend the Charter cannot go into effect. Without this law change the dismantling of the Country the Netherlands Antilles and the creation of the new countries Curaçao and St. Maarten and the integration of the BES islands Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba into the Dutch Constellation cannot take place either.

"I have not received a concrete request from a party yet, but that is because it is vacation time. It would be strange if the Second Chamber would want to conclude this matter in a written manner. I am counting on a debate in the first week after the recess," said Van Beek.

The debate would have to take place on either September 7 or 8, because the RTC is on September 9. The Second Chamber is on recess until the first week of September. With scepticism growing among the VVD, SP and PVV parties, the outcome of the debate and whether the Parliament will say yes or no is still unclear.

The position of VVD, SP and PVV combined has gained strength since the last batch of Kingdom consensus laws was approved late April. Together, the three parties have 70 of the 150 seats in Parliament. Parties are especially concerned about St. Maarten's capacity to attain country status.

The recent letter of the Committee for Financial Supervision CFT in which it stated that it no longer had confidence in St. Maarten's budgetary discipline is expected to be a topic of discussion in the pending Parliamentary debate.

13 August, 2010