THE HAGUE--Financial supervision for Curaçao and St. Maarten will remain in place, at least until the 2015 evaluation of the Kingdom Laws has been completed, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte informed the Second Chamber of the Dutch Parliament on Thursday.

 

Rutte mentioned higher supervision in his written answers to questions posed by the party leaders during the general debate on the Dutch Government's 2015 draft budget.

 

ChristianUnion (CU) leader Arie Slob had inquired about the relations in the Kingdom, but did not specifically ask about financial supervision.

Nevertheless, Rutte addressed the matter in his reply. "The supervision on the countries based on the Kingdom Law on Financial Supervision will be maintained," he stated.

 

Slob had asked whether the Dutch cabinet shared the view that the representation of Aruba, Curaçao and St. Maarten in the constellation of the Kingdom is still not ideal. Also, he wanted to know the cabinet's position on the "malfunctioning place" of the public entities Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba in the Dutch constellation.

 

Slob further inquired about the upcoming evaluation of the constitutional relations that went into effect on October 10, 2010, when Curaçao and St. Maarten attained country status and Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba became Dutch public entities. "Does the cabinet see the need to work on equal relations between the countries in this important evaluation year that will be closed off on October 10, 2015?"

 

Rutte replied: "The constitutional reform of the Kingdom was realised in 2010. The relations between the parts of the Kingdom have their own character, guaranteed by the Charter. The various Kingdom Laws established in 2010 contain evaluation stipulations of which the execution is currently being prepared in consultation with the involved Caribbean parts of the Kingdom. The position of the public entities also will be part of the evaluation."

 

Financial supervision will be the main topic of a general debate of the Permanent Committee for Kingdom Relations of the Second Chamber with Minister of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations Ronald Plasterk next week Thursday.

 

Discussed will be, among other things, the reports of the Committee for Financial Supervision CFT for Curaçao and St. Maarten, and for Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba of the first six months of 2014; the interim report of the audit of Aruba's financial position carried out by CFT's secretariat; and the report of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) of its consultation regarding Curaçao and St. Maarten.

 

The Second Chamber will have a separate debate with Minister Plasterk on November 6 on the CFT's control tasks for Curaçao and St. Maarten. This debate was requested by Member of the Second Chamber André Bosman of the liberal democratic VVD party.

 

(The Daily Herald)