Feasibility status Land be proved during the RTC"s

October 16, 2008 7:24 AM

The next RTC’s must show whether it is feasible for St. Maarten and Curacao to get the status of land within the Kingdom. They are going to perform many duties independently.

This is the answer of the Dutch government through state secretary Ank Bijleveld Schouten (Kingdom Relations, CDA) on one of the 64 parliamentary questions of the standing committee for Neth.Antillean and Aruban Affairs during the consideration of the 2009 draft-budget of Kingdom Relations (IV).

“Besides, the status of land doesn’t mean that Curacao and St. Maarten ought to be totally self-supporting. The Charter offers several possibilities for structural cooperation between the countries of the Kingdom. The Joint Court of Justice-, the Public Prosecutor-, and the police consensus–statutory laws are currently being worked out.”

Another question was: “Does the cabinet still consider Curacao and St. Maarten’s chosen status of land practicable and thus desirable, if the cabinet establishes that considering maintenance of law and order, the scale of the islands is too small to structurally provide self for the quality and quantity and that the existing structural cooperation must actually be increased to comply? The government answers: “The status of land doesn’t mean that Curacao and St. Maarten must be totally self-supported. There are currently already structural cooperation taking place between the countries of the Kingdom on the Joint Court of Justice, the coastguard, and the Detective Cooperative Team. It was agreed during the governmental deliberation of November 2, 2006 that there will also be structural cooperation on Public Prosecutor and police. The consensus-statutory laws for this are currently being worked out.”

On the question whether the cabinet expects that the future apparatus of government will be ready in 2010, before the Round Table Conference, to carry out the new duties, the cabinet answers: “In the final declaration of the start-Round Table Conference of November 2006 is agreed to test whether the apparatus of government of the new countries meet the criterion. That’s when it becomes clear if the future apparatus of government are ready.”

(Source: National newspaper Amigoe)

14 October, 2008