Democratic deficit to be discussed Friday
PHILIPSBURG--Members of Parliament (MPs) have a full day of committee meetings, today Wednesday. The eight permanent committees will meet for the first time and will also tend to the appointment of their chairpersons and deputy chairpersons.
President of Parliament Gracita Arrindell announced the day of meetings that run from 9:00am to 3:00pm during a press conference on Tuesday afternoon in the old Parliament Building.
The eight groups are the committee on Housing, Spatial Planning, Environment and Infrastructure; committee for Public Health, Labour and Social Affairs, Justice Committee; Finance Committee; committee for Education, Culture, Youth and Sports; the committee on Tourism, Economic Affairs and Transportation; committee for Kingdom Relations and the committee on Petitions.
She said the committees would have to establish their action plans and get to work by either tackling topical issues or matters they deem important such as the need for better regulation of the Rental Committee.
From these meetings, the committees can prepare advices to be sent on for deliberations in the Central Committee and then, if necessary, to the General Session of Parliament if some decision or law needs to be approved.
Arrindell has also prepared a preliminary meeting schedule for 2011 and expects the input from the rest of the MPs about additions or changes.
On Parliament's agenda for the rest of this week are meetings dealing with the Ombudsman on Thursday and first session of the ad hoc committee to review the Rules of Order of Parliament on Friday.
The Committee for Kingdom Relations and Internal Affairs will also meet on Friday morning to discuss the democratic deficit in the Kingdom about which a report had been prepared some years ago.
Arrindell explained that there is some urgency to deal with the issue of Democratic Deficit as a meeting of the Parliaments of the Kingdom is slated for April in The Hague. She added that Dutch Second Chamber Chairwoman Gerdi Verbeet had requested the early handling of the matter in lieu of the upcoming meeting.
The Parliaments of St. Maarten, Cura�ao and Aruba are expected to meet on the Democratic deficit prior to the meeting in The Hague.
Another Central Committee meeting has been scheduled for Tuesday, January 25 at 9:00am for MPs to get and request information on the Penal Code and the draft Law on Special Investigation Powers for law enforcement. Professor H. den Doelder has been invited to talk on these two matters.
Asked if she would invite Justice Minister Roland Duncan to the session as he has strong opinion on the draft law and what it would mean for privacy, Arrindell said this was a parliamentary session for the legislators and dualism was in effect.
Stephen Carr Biology Facebook Caribbean JLS US supreme court
No comments:
Post a Comment