THE HAGUE–The Second Chamber of the Dutch Parliament on Thursday did not support a request of Nevin Özütok of the green left party GroenLinks to have a plenary debate about the latest law proposal to set up a Dispute Regulation for the Kingdom.
“One of these days, the Parliaments of Aruba, Curaçao, St. Maarten and the Netherlands will receive a law proposal for the Dispute Regulation (geschillenregeling). However, from media reports we understand that Aruba, Curaçao and St. Maarten are worried because they are given insufficient time to discuss this with their parliament,” said Özütok during a meeting of parliament on Thursday.
According to Özütok, this debate should be preceded by a letter from the state secretary in which he explains the process to arrive at the current law proposal for a Dispute Regulation and the manner in which the other countries in the Kingdom can still have a say in the definite law proposal and the planning of the state secretary.
With the exception of the DENK party, no other party supported Özütok’s request for a plenary debate. Member of Parliament (MP) Antje Diertens of the democratic party D66 and Joba van den Berg of the Christian Democratic Party CDA pointed out that the Second Chamber would still get a technical briefing about the process to arrive at the Dispute Regulation. In anticipation of this technical briefing, they did not support Özütok’s request for a debate.
MP André Bosman of the liberal democratic VVD party also objected to a plenary debate. “The Kingdom Charter is very clear. That is nice, but it would be good to know the nature of the objections of the other countries. I would like to read that too in the letter of the state secretary. Other than that, this concerns the regular handling of a law proposal, which offers sufficient room for the countries’ input.”
It was agreed to ask the state secretary for an explanatory letter. Özütok said she would await the letter, but that if she still had questions after receiving this letter, she would be back to again request a plenary debate.
Aruba, Curaçao and St. Maarten voted against the current law proposal to establish a Dispute Regulation during a meeting of the Kingdom Council of Ministers last Friday, Curaçao Prime Minister Eugene Rhuggenaath confirmed earlier this week.
According to Rhuggenaath, Curaçao wanted to first discuss the latest law proposal at the Inter-Parliamentary Consultation of the Kingdom IPKO, which takes place in St. Maarten early January 2019. Handling the law proposal at the IPKO first would result in creating a bigger support. “That is why we asked the Kingdom Council of Ministers to adjourn the handling of the law proposal. When this appeared impossible, we voted against,” he said.
State Secretary Knops said after Friday’s meeting the current law proposal largely met the wishes of the Dutch Caribbean countries. He said he had consulted the prime ministers and governors of the countries beforehand. The law proposal that is now on the table enables the countries to take their conflicts of a legal nature to the Dispute Regulation.
Bron: The Daily Herald