THE HAGUE--Dutch caretaker Minister of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations Liesbeth Spies has urged Aruba, Curaçao and St. Maarten to initiate the workgroups that have to report to the Kingdom Conference late this year.
The countries agreed during the last Kingdom Conference, in December 2011, to establish four workgroups that would look at the transport of passengers and goods within the Kingdom, the practical bottlenecks and differences of interpretation in the Kingdom, preparation of a dispute arrangement for the Kingdom and possible additional areas of cooperation, including the establishment of a Kingdom Secretariat, among other things.
It was agreed at the Kingdom Conference that each country would chair one committee. But none of the workgroups has started its work so far, stated Spies in a letter she sent recently to the Dutch Parliament's Second Chamber about her June 10-14 visit to the Dutch Caribbean.
"I expressed my worries about this during my visit to the islands. I brought up the matter in St. Maarten. The countries have indicated that they will start up the workgroups," stated Spies.
The Netherlands will chair the workgroup that will look into passenger traffic and transport of goods within the Kingdom. Complying with the motion of Member of the Second Chamber André Bosman of the conservative VVD party that was adopted by the Second Chamber late February this year, The Netherlands will put a number of issues on the agenda of this workgroup, in which all four countries will participate.
These issues are prevention of double taxation, advantages and disadvantages of a Customs union, harmonisation of airport tax for flights between the islands, speedy handling of Dutch passport holders by Immigration and possibilities of travelling with an ID card and via pre-clearance.
The Kingdom Conference will take place in Aruba mid-November this year. Initially the conference had been planned for late August, but it was agreed in consultation with all four countries to postpone the date. Spies said this delay was most convenient, because of the September 12 election in The Netherlands.
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