WILLEMSTAD--St. Maarten will again not be present at the upcoming Inter-Parliamentary Consultation of the Kingdom IPKO which will take place in Curaçao from January 7 to 10.
The absence of a delegation of the St. Maarten Parliament has not escaped the attention of their colleagues in Curaçao and the Netherlands. St. Maarten will not attend the upcoming IPKO for obvious reasons: the January 9 elections.
Attempts were made during the preparations of the IPKO to find an alternative date, but this appeared impossible, according to Curaçao Member of Parliament (MP) Ana-Maria Pauletta of the PAR party and Chairperson of the Permanent Committee for Kingdom Relations, Intra-Parliamentary Relations and Foreign Relations of the Curaçao Parliament.
St. Maarten will not be attending the IPKO for a second time in a row. Late June 2019, the St. Maarten delegation had to cancel its participation at the IPKO because of the urgent handling of the 2019 budget in Parliament.
Pauletta explained that it has been agreed that the MPs who will attend the upcoming IPKO will inform their St. Maarten colleagues of the deliberations and the results of the meetings in Curaçao.
The IPKO will start on January 7. The day before, delegations of Curaçao and Aruba will have a bipartite meeting. Traditionally, the three Dutch Caribbean countries meet the day before in a tripartite setting during which the countries discuss issues of common interest and their position on certain topics that feature on the IPKO agenda.
On the agenda of the bipartite meeting between Curaçao and Aruba are the Dispute Regulation for the Kingdom, economic and sustainable development and the cooperation between the two countries. The Dispute Regulation is not on the agenda of the upcoming IPKO, but the Curaçao and Aruba delegations nonetheless want to discuss this topic in a bipartite setting.
On the agenda of the IPKO are topics such as the crisis situation in Venezuela and the implications for the Dutch Caribbean, the deployment of observers during elections in the Kingdom, the supply and use of energy in the individual countries and law enforcement.
The Parliamentary delegations will visit the SDKK penitentiary facility in Koraal Specht, including the foreigners’ barracks where many undocumented Venezuelan immigrants are held pending their deportation. A visit will also be paid to the new Curaçao Medical Centre (CMC).
MP Pauletta, who chairs the organising committee, is positive about the preparations for the IPKO. She pointed out that the IPKO serves to improve the relations and cooperation between the countries within the Kingdom.
“This is also what is stated in the Kingdom Charter. We want to use this opportunity to introduce our colleagues from other parts of the Kingdom to our island. Many of the Dutch Parliamentarians are new and do not know Curaçao,” said Pauletta. The next IPKO after the upcoming one in Curaçao will take place in The Hague from June 9 to 12.
