The First Chamber's Permanent Committees for Kingdom Relations and Home Affairs, General Affairs, the High Councils of State and House of the Queen heard the plea of the delegations from Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba who informed the Senate during a meeting last week of their objections to the anchoring of the islands' constitutional status at this point.

 

The delegations asked the Senate to hold the legislation proposal which had already been approved by the Second Chamber in October 2012. At the time, the islands had also voiced their objections, but a vast majority in the Second Chamber decided to go along with the government's proposal to start the lengthy process to change the Constitution.

 

All parties, except the Party for Freedom PVV and ChristianUnion (CU) voted against. The CU argued that it was against the agreement between the Dutch Government and the islands to start the process to amend the Constitution before the general evaluation of the new constitutional structures in the Kingdom that were implemented in October 10, 2010.

 

The Senate's Committees agreed that the island delegations had a point with their argument that their constitutional status should not be secured in the Constitution because it would tie down the general evaluation in 2015.

 

Chairlady of the Permanent Committee for Kingdom Relations Marijke Linthorst (PvdA) informed Minister of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations Ronald Plasterk on Thursday that the senate had decided to postpone the handling of the law proposal until after the evaluation. "This does right to the evaluation of the constitutional structure before a new constitutional structure is secured in the Constitution," she stated.

 

The Senate decided during its meeting on March 19 that there was no rush to handle the legislation proposal because the Dutch Parliamentary elections will only take place in 2017. That is if no earlier elections are called due to a collapsed government.

 

The Senate will continue the handling of the legislation proposal after 2015, but before 2017. Two readings in Dutch Parliament are needed to amend the Constitution, with elections in between and only with the approval by two thirds of the Parliaments in the second reading.

 

The change to the Constitution would make it possible to create a level playing field between the three public entities and the Dutch provinces and municipalities whereby the same rules and regulations would apply to all. The law proposal also regulates that members of the Island Councils can elect members of the First Chamber.

 

The law proposal to amend the Constitution further defines that there are differences between the Caribbean part of The Netherlands and the European part of The Netherlands, the so-called differentiation clause. Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba very much objected to this clause.

 

The Senate's Committees for Kingdom Relations and General Affairs had already posed a series of critical questions earlier this year but was not satisfied with the answers that it received from Minister Plasterk in February.

 

The Christian Democratic Party CDA questioned whether the legislation proposal didn't forgo on a constitutional final model for the islands. The Dutch Government denied that this was the case and assured that the islands could still opt to become a Dutch municipality.

 

The Socialist Party SP and the Democratic Party D66 pointed out that there was no rush since the two readings could not be concluded before the 2015 elections of the First Chamber. Plasterk replied that this might be so, but that he would still like to proceed with the handling of the law proposal.

 

The ChristianUnion wondered whether a change to the Constitution wouldn't impede an objective general evaluation in 2015. Plasterk replied that this was not so and stated that he saw no reason to postpone the handling of the law proposal until the 2015 evaluation. According to Plasterk, the islands could decide to keep their public entity status or opt to become a municipality after the evaluation.

 

Regarding the differentiation clause Plasterk stated that this clause confirmed the special circumstances on the islands which makes that they are clearly different from the European part of The Netherlands.

 

(The Daily Herald)