PHILIPSBURG--Members of Parliament (MPs) from around the kingdom continued their discussions and at times heated debate on the Kingdom Charter and Guarantee Function of The Netherlands on Thursday morning as part of the Inter-Parliamentary Affairs and Kingdom Relations Conference at Sonesta Great Bay Beach Resort and Casino. The conference ends today, Friday.
Dealing with the charter and kingdom law procedures, Dutch Caribbean MPs called for more involvement in the development and adoption of kingdom laws. Those laws affect the people of St. Maarten, Cura�ao and Aruba although they, through their elected officials, had no input or say.
Cura�ao President of Parliament Ivar Asjes called the Committee for Financial Supervision CFT "undemocratic" because it decides on and demands amendments to the budgets of Cura�ao and St. Maarten. This "affects the autonomy" of the countries. He called for all kingdom consensus laws to be sent to the parliament in the Dutch Caribbean for approval and if a two-thirds majority is not received, the law should be a "no go."
Democratic Party (DP) MP Roy Marlin said the law on temporary financial supervision for the two countries left little room for St. Maarten to manoeuvre financially and build its institutions. He also called for the country to gain access to the promised debt relief funds from The Netherlands.
Dutch MP Jan van Bochove said kingdom laws, like the one on the CFT, provide expiration dates and the laws in themselves provide a framework for the parliaments of the new countries within the Dutch Kingdom to act. He argued that the CFT came about via consensus, a point contested by Asjes.
Cura�ao MP Eunice Eisden said it needs to be explored what the kingdom laws mean to "our emancipation."
On the "dispute regulation" (geschillenregeling), MPs called for a quick implementation.
Aruba MP Juan Thijsen suggested that the Supreme Court be the "independent agency" to handle differences of opinions among countries.
MPs had a general consensus that the Guarantee Function as outlined in the Kingdom Charter should be maintained and should not be used as a means to interfere with the autonomy of the countries.
There was also consensus on scrapping article 43, sub II of the Kingdom Charter, dealing with the guarantee function. That article states: "The safeguarding of such rights and freedoms, legal certainty and good governance shall be a Kingdom affair."
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