Ministers Plenipotentiary Guillfred Besaril of Aruba (left), Jorien Wuite of St. Maarten (second from left), Anthony Begina of Curaçao (second from right) greet Members of the Second Chamber at the start of the plenary debate on Thursday. At right State Secretary Raymond Knops.
THE HAGUE--The Second Chamber of the Dutch Parliament late Thursday night approved the law proposal to establish a Dispute Regulation for the Kingdom. A vast majority voted in favour of this much-debated law proposal, which in the end was passed with a number of amendments.
Earlier in the day, the Second Chamber and the special delegates of the Parliaments of Aruba and Curaçao debated on the various amendments submitted by a number of Members of Parliament (MPs) with State Secretary of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations Raymond Knops.
In an attempt to seek a majority vote for the amendments that would change the law proposal, delegations asked for an additional regulation which would make it harder for the Kingdom Council of Ministers to deviate from an advice of the Council of State filed under the Dispute Regulation.
Ady Thijsen of the MEP Aruba adapted the amendment that he presented on Tuesday together with Members of the Second Chamber Chris van Dam of the Christian Democratic Party CDA, Ronald van Raak of the Socialist Party (SP) and André Bosman of the liberal democratic VVD party by dropping the wish for a binding ruling by the Council of State’s Department of Administrative Procedure.
Instead, Thijsen’s adapted amendment sought to establish a new department of the Council of State, a Department for Kingdom Disputes. “Politics is about making compromises and finding each other,” said Thijsen.
“The amendment proposals are being written during this meeting. Representatives of four Parliaments are making a Dispute Regulation together. It would be fantastic if we can get this done,” said Van Raak.
State Secretary Knops said that for now he couldn’t lend his support to the amendment of Thijsen to introduce a special Kingdom Disputes Department at the Council of State. He pointed out that since this concerned a major change to the structure of the Council of State, the latter needed to first give its opinion on this matter. During voting late Thursday night this amendment failed to muster sufficient support.
The State Secretary advised against an amendment of Thijsen and MP Antje Diertens of the Democratic Party D66 whereby the Ministers Plenipotentiary of the Dutch Caribbean countries could take the decision of the Kingdom government to put aside an advice of the Council of State to that same Council of State. This amendment too was voted down by the Second Chamber on Thursday night.
According to Knops, this amendment would create the situation where the same dispute can again be taken to the Council of State. “A procedure needs to end at a certain time. Whether the Kingdom Council of Ministers unjustly deviated from an advice can be dealt with in the evaluation,” said Knops.
The State Secretary was positive about an amendment of MP Roelof Bisschop of the Christian reformed party SGP to reduce the five-year evaluation of the Dispute Regulation to every three years. This amendment was approved by the Second Chamber during voting.
Knops didn’t object to the amendment of Nico Drost of the ChristianUnion to make it possible for the Ministers Plenipotentiary to seek advice from the Council of State in case the Chairman of the Kingdom Council of Ministers decides that there is no dispute. This amendment was approved by the Second Chamber. The Second Chamber also approved an amendment of Diertens and Attje Kuiken of the Labour Party PvdA to specify under exactly which conditions the Kingdom government can deviate from the advice of the Council of State.
The State Secretary objected to a motion of Van Raak, co-signed by Rocco Tjon of MEP Aruba, Giselle McWilliam of the MAN Curaçao, Bosman, Van Dam, Bisschop, Diertens, Kuiken and Drost.
The motion requested the governments of Aruba, Curaçao, St. Maarten and the Netherlands to enter into consultations to come to a more specific definition of the responsibilities of the individual countries and the Kingdom as a whole. During the voting late Thursday night, the Second Chamber unanimously adopted this motion.
The special delegates indicated during the plenary handling on Thursday that at this stage they didn’t count on a perfect Dispute Regulation that met all wishes of the Dutch Caribbean countries. “We have a long breath where it comes to relations within the Kingdom. It took us 40 years before Aruba attained country status. If we don’t get through today, we will stay on until a real Dispute Regulation has been achieved,” said MP Richard Arends of the AVP Aruba. The Dispute Regulation has been a source of discussion since 2010.
MP Mc William agreed. “There won’t be a perfect Dispute Regulation today, but with the amendments we will hopefully get a Dispute Regulation that is as optimal as possible. If that doesn’t get achieved, we as Curaçao will stick to the same viewpoint of professor Arjen van Rijn: better no regulation than a half-baked regulation that we will never get rid of,” she said.
