The Parliamentary delegations of the three Dutch Caribbean countries meeting at Maho reached consensus Monday regarding a draft law for the High Court in The Hague to decide on disputes
between the kingdom partners. The tripartite gathering’s proposal will be tabled when the subject comes up in the Inter-Parliamentary Kingdom Consultation IPKO today, Wednesday afternoon.
The delegation from Netherlands is expected to welcome the plans, as the four legislatures already had agreed to come up with a dispute regulation. However, the Dutch Government not too long ago indicated its preference for a temporary solution whereby the Council of State would handle such.
The latter plan had garnered some support in political The Hague meanwhile, so it’s not entirely clear whether and how that may have affected the position of visiting elected representatives from Europe. However, it also should be kept in mind that one does not have to exclude the other.
After all, there already have been several differences of interpretation concerning the Kingdom Charter and the Governor’s Regulation in the past five years since the constitutional reforms per 10-10-10 alone. A provisional arrangement that can be put in place quickly while a probably-longer process for a more structural approach is embarked on might not be such a bad idea.
Hopefully, all involved, including the Governments of St. Maarten, Curaçao and Aruba as well as the Kingdom Council of Ministers, will be able to find each other on the issue and in any case prevent much further dispute on how to solve disputes.
