"Euro parliamentary voting right in Kingdom consensus'

October 30, 2008 7:49 AM

The Senate has accepted the expansion of the voting rights for the European Parliament in the Electoral Laws to all Dutchmen living in the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba without needing to vote on it. The CDA-fraction in the Senate wants to include the European Parliamentary voting rights in the (consensus-) Kingdom Act within the next three years.

Reason being because the European Parliament now also represents the Dutch voters in the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba after accepting the above mentioned proposal. During the proceedings yesterday, Alfons Dölle (CDA) therefore issued in a motion for the measure. The motion was co-signed by four other members of the CDA-fraction. On November 4th this motion will be voted on.

Already on 1 July the House of Commons had approved the expansion in the voting right. The PVV was then the only one that voted against it. Motive for this law amendment is the verdicts by the State Council and the European Court of Law, after the Arubans Mike Eman and Benny Sevinger presented their plea. Both institutes found that there should not be any difference between the Dutch living outside of Europe which now have European voting rights and the Dutch on Aruba and in the Antilles which don't have these rights. The rule that states that Arubans and Antilleans can only vote for the European Parliament if they have lived in Holland for more than ten years will no longer be applicable. A Dutch citizen who lives in the Netherlands Antilles or on Aruba on the day of the announcement of the candidates can submit a registration request at municipality in the Hague and thus have voting rights for the elections in the Netherlands for the members of the European Parliament. Voting will be done by mail or through the internet.
For clarity's sake: the Senate states Aruba and the Netherlands Antilles will not become part of the European Union, European law does not apply in these countries and the European Union will not have any jurisdiction here.

(Source: National newspaper Amigoe)

29 October, 2008