Island Parliaments asked to respond
THE HAGUE - The Second Chamber of the Dutch Parliament is seeking a formal reaction of the three Dutch Caribbean Parliaments to the advice of the Council of State on the possibility of Members of the Parliaments of Aruba, Curaçao and St. Maarten to submit a Kingdom Law proposal, the so-called right of initiative.
The Second Chamber’s Permanent Committee for Kingdom Relations decided in its procedural meeting on Wednesday to ask the Parliaments of Aruba,
In December 2016, Minister Plasterk stated that he did not support the proposal to grant individual Members of the Parliaments of Aruba, Curaçao and St. Maarten the right to submit Kingdom Law proposals in the Second Chamber.
The Minister also did not back the idea of granting the right of initiative to the Parliaments as a whole. He pointed out that the individual right of initiative would provide a new instrument that was already available to the Ministers Plenipotentiary of the Dutch Caribbean countries.
So far, the Dutch Caribbean Parliaments have not sent a formal response to the advice of the Council of State and the reply of the Minister. The Kingdom Relations Committee would like to receive that formal response which will be used in deciding on how to proceed on this matter. The Parliaments have been asked to respond before February 14, 2017.
The Daily Herald
