THE HAGUE - The Kingdom Act Caribbean Body for Reform and Development (COHO) conflicts with the Statute for the Kingdom. According to the Council of State, which therefore advises Undersecretary Raymond Knops of Kingdom Relations not to present the bill in its current form to the parliaments of the four countries, because it “falls short”.
According to Dossier Koninkrijksrelaties, the advice is not (yet) public, but sources in The Hague call the conclusions of the Council of State painful for the Netherlands because the governments of Curaçao, Aruba and St. Maarten are largely right. The countries have always taken the position that the approach of the Netherlands undermines their autonomy enshrined in the Statute. In this fundamental criticism they find the Council of State on their side.
"Not fitting"
The Council supports the aim of the Kingdom Act to make the economies and public finances of the countries healthy, to strengthen public administration and to improve the conditions of the populations of Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten. The Council of State calls it “self-evident” that the Netherlands imposes conditions on the granting of aid and links it to a reform program.
However, the Council of State finds the Undersecretary's approach literally “inappropriate” and doubts whether the set-up he has chosen will “lead to successful results”. The fear is that giving far-reaching powers to an army of Dutch civil servants will rather weaken the countries 'independence and executive power, rather than the intended strengthening of the countries' powers of implementation.
Authorizations
The Council of State finds the division of responsibilities and powers between COHO and the governments and between COHO and the Financial Supervision Council unclear. “The COHO has far-reaching powers that also belong to the local government”, but at the same time the Council questions COHO's independence as an (Dutch) independent administrative body because it “functions to a large extent under the direction of the Minister of the Interior and Kingdom Relations”.
The Council of State also notes that the powers of the Minister of the Interior and Kingdom Relations are hardly limited: "The Minister of the Interior and Kingdom Relations is not only placed above the COHO, but also above the national government of the country concerned." The Council also believes that the law offers the Netherlands too much scope to change the rules of the game during the game because the conditions for further support can be unilaterally changed in the meantime. Another point of criticism is that the countries have little influence on the composition of the board of the COHO and that is bad for the support base, the advice reads.
Kingdom Council of Ministers
The advice of the Council of State was issued on 3 March and was sent by Knops to the prime ministers of the CAS (Curaçao, Aruba and St. Maarten) countries at the end of last week with a request to respond to it. Ultimately, the decision on what to do with the advice in the Kingdom Council of Ministers must be made: ignore or (fundamentally) amend the bill so that it does not conflict with the Statute.
Incidentally, COHO is already informally operational in anticipation of the completion of the legislative process. In accordance with the usual procedure, the advice of the Council of State is made public when the final bill is presented to parliaments for consideration.
Source: Dossier Koninkrijkrelaties
