Dear Editor,
I have attended many IPKO [Inter-Parliamentary Kingdom Consultation – Ed.] meetings and what always stood out to me is the fact that they are only of a consultative nature because the final decisions have to be carried out by the governments of the respective countries.
But it has been proven that the one who definitely has the final decision is the Kingdom Council of Minsters especially when we look at the process that takes place in connection with Articles 15 to 22 of the Kingdom Charter.
This has caused many disputes, which brings me to our famous Dispute Regulation.
As a matter of fact, former Member of the Second Chamber Mr. van Laar in 2001 and later picked up by Second Chamber Member van Oven presented a draft proposal to make amendments to article 14 and 38 of the Kingdom Charter which would give the other countries more authority as it relates to disputes within the Kingdom.
I listened to Member of Parliament Mr. Buncamper who wanted to know the status of the Dispute regulation. To my colleague let me state the following: in 2010 a new article 12a was inserted into the Kingdom Charter, giving instructions to the legislators of the Kingdom to make provisions to have disputes between the Kingdom and the countries established by kingdom law. The intention was, and still is, to have disputes handled by an independent organization. The Council of State was targeted to be such a body; however, the Kingdom Council of Ministers did not want the decision or advice of the Council of State to be binding.
Now after some 10 years of deliberations, proposals and meetings on this regulation, the Kingdom Council of Ministers have decided to put the dispute regulation on the back burner for 3 years, as in their opinion there are more important matters to be addressed.
I believe that the governments of the countries of Aruba, Curaçao and St. Maarten should protest against this and have it placed again on the IPKO agenda.
Another matter which I think is related is the document the “Democratic Deficit” prepared by the late Mavis Salomon and her colleagues. Former Minister of Justice of the Netherlands Hirsch Balin I believe in 1997 made reference to having this dispute dealt with.
I would like to know the status of this report. And I think it should be discussed in a meeting of parliament.
Mr. chairman, an issue that might not be related to the upcoming IPKO meeting but one that is ongoing for quite some time now. I am talking about the challenges our students who have studied in the Netherlands and received loans from DUO are facing. They earn guilders but are forced to pay their loans in the euro currency.
I understood that in Curaçao a special account was set up where these loans can be repaid in the local currency. I would like to know the possibilities of having such a system established in St. Maarten.
George Pantophlet
