THE HAGUE - The Kingdom Relations Committee of the Dutch Senate has accepted the withdrawal of the Kingdom Disputes Act proposal by Undersecretary Raymond Knops for notification. The committee wants to continue with the bill, but is waiting to see what Curaçao, Aruba and Sint Maarten (CAS) come up with.
The committee decided on Tuesday. The senators are following the agreement with the delegations of Curaçao, Aruba and Sint Maarten at the Interparliamentary Kingdom Consultation (IPKO) in August on Bonaire:
“Parliamentary delegations of the three Caribbean countries call on their respective governments to come up with a proposal for a Kingdom Act, in accordance with the principles formulated earlier in the Ipko (Interparliamentary Conference) of May 2015, and to have this proposal placed on the agenda of the Kingdom Council of Ministers for discussion and decision-making. The Dutch delegation is awaiting this process.”
In 2015, it was agreed at the Ipko that an independent body should be established that would make binding decisions in disputes within the Kingdom. The outcome of the debate in the Second Chamber of the Dutch Parliament in 2019, that a new department at the Council of State would be established that makes non-binding statements, contradicts this.
Nevertheless, the Chamber voted in favor in the presence of Caribbean delegates. Undersecretary Raymond Knops of Kingdom Relations then presented the bill to the Senate, but withdrew it when it turned out that the Parliaments of the CAS countries still objected. The Senate will now enter into written consultation with the Dutch government, it was decided on Tuesday.
The Kingdom Relations Committee also made agreements on Tuesday about the Senate delegations to the next Ipkos. Commission president Paul Rosenmöller of the GroenLinks party will be joined in 2022 by members of the CDA, D66, ChristenUnie and Fractie Nanninga (better known as JA21).
In 2023, VVD, CDA, PvdA and the Party for the Animals will join the chairman. The committee will also investigate whether working visits by the Senate are possible to the six islands, after the working visits outside Bonaire were canceled last August due to the restrictions surrounding COVID-19.
