THE HAGUE--The Dutch Parliament delegation which was slated to travel to St. Maarten early January 2022 for the Inter-Parliamentary Consultation for the Kingdom IPKO has cancelled its trip. As a result, and in consultation with the Presidium, it was decided to cancel the upcoming IPKO.
The Daily Herald was informed on Thursday that the Dutch delegation with members of the Permanent Committees for Kingdom relations of the First and Second Chamber unfortunately had to decide to refrain from travelling to St. Maarten for the IPKO, which was scheduled to take place from January 5-7.
The delegation said that it regretted this very much, but that it had to take this decision considering the COVID-19 pandemic and the hard lockdown in the Netherlands which went into effect on Sunday, December 19.
After thorough deliberation, the delegation decided it had to take this decision, also in perspective of what the new restrictive measures demand of the people in the Netherlands, this newspaper was informed by the Dutch Parliament.
The delegation also took into consideration the COVID-19 Omicron variant and said it wanted to prevent the risk that the Dutch Parliament delegation could contribute to the faster introduction of this new variant on the islands.
Members of the IPKO Presidium held a consultation on Wednesday, during which the option was discussed to move the planning of the twice yearly IPKO from winter/summer to spring/autumn in order to take the COVID-19 incidence into account as much as possible. This option will be worked out further in the coming period.
The Dutch delegation said it hoped to still meet the colleague Members of the Dutch Caribbean Parliaments for a physical IPKO in the Caribbean part of the Netherlands in the spring of 2022.
