WILLEMSTAD - A delegation of MPs from Sint Maarten, Curaçao and Aruba traveled to The Hague this month to discuss the dispute settlement procedure. For years there has been disagreement between the Netherlands and the countries within the Kingdom. What does the dispute settlement actually mean and why are the islands and the Netherlands unable to resolve it?
A dispute settlement has been discussed for 60 years and in 2010 real progress was made following the political reforms whereby Curaçao and St Maarten became autonomous countries and Bonaire, Saba and St Eustatius special municipalities of the Netherlands. But eight years later, the dispute settlement remains a hot issue.
Big stick in reserve
“I have learned the rule of law from the Dutch,” says Giselle Mc William MP. She was one of the delegation members who recently visited The Hague. “Why are we so scared to bring about the dispute settlement and to improve our relationship? If there is a dispute settlement, then everyone will do their best not to get into a dispute. It is just a big stick in reserve.”
In May 2015 it finally it seemed to be: during the second day of the Interparliamentary Kingdom Consultation (Ipko) the four countries had agreed on a dispute settlement. There would be an independent body that would make binding judgments about the legal interpretation of the Statute. It still had to be decided whether there was an existing High Committee of State or a new Court to be established. But that decision did not come yet.
Former Minister of Kingdom Relations Ronald Plasterk took matters into his own hands and submitted his own proposal in January 2017 on his own initiative. To the great displeasure of the Caribbean islands. In Plasterk's proposal, the Council of State gives compelling advice about a conflict between the countries of the Kingdom and this is not binding. The Caribbean countries of the Kingdom prefer the Supreme Court as the body that settles the conflicts and that this judgment is binding. Otherwise the Kingdom Council of Ministers still has the last word.
“In the event of a conflict, the Kingdom Council of Ministers must reconsider the decision. In practice, I think that if the Council of State finds the decision unlawful, it must be taken very seriously into account," assured Plasterk at the time.
Impasse
The Caribbean islands did not agree with the unilateral proposal. Since then, it has been discussed every six months during Ipko, but the impasse has not been broken. Undersecretary Raymond Knops makes a new attempt to get a bill from the Council of State. A delegation from Aruba, Curaçao and St Maarten traveled to The Hague this month to emphasize once again that they only want to agree with the proposal that all parties agreed in 2015, including Mc William.
The Curaçao parliamentarian also debated during the NTR debate program Issues with MPs Andre Bosman (VVVD) and Ronald van Raak (SP). Both Dutch politicians say that the islands must indicate more clearly how responsibilities should be divided. "What do you think what you can and cannot do," asked Van Raak.
Mc William says the islands have tabled amendments to this end, and these are being discussed together with the Knops bill on July 2, a week after Ipko in the Netherlands in June. She is confident that it will work this year. "We stormed the Binnenhof and left enough material for them to think about it in The Hague." “We have to, after so many years. It will be a historic moment."
