Another Bomb-shell Legal change proposed…

How will this affect the future relations in the Kingdom of the Netherlands? According to a press statement issued on Friday by Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs: after a four country consultation between The Netherlands, Curacao, Aruba and St. Maarten, a new entity was proposed by the Netherlands as a take it or leave it condition for the third part of the liquidity support for these countries after COVID-19.

According to the statement, this ‘New Entity’ proposal has already been confirmed in the Kingdom Council of Ministers meeting of May 15^th 2020, in order for the Caribbean countries in the Kingdom to get liquidity support. There has been no documentation provided on paper spelling out how this new structure will work, or how it will be set up. The countries in the Caribbean part of the Kingdom has gone ahead and accepted the proposed conditions so that they could have access to the all-important liquidity support.

In a meeting held on Thursday June 25^th State Secretary for Interior Affairs and kingdom Relations Raymond Knops, has explained verbally that the (so called) ‘New Entity’ will take the form of a democratically regulated Dutch Independent Governmental Organization, (freely translated) but seem to have no input from the Caribbean part of the Kingdom. Knops also said the new entity will supervise the liquidity support and monitor the agreements made by each country based on Article 38 paragraph 2 of the Kingdom Charter which would also require a change in the Kingdom Law. This document is not yet available and appears to be in the mode of being tweaked by Mr. Knops and his support staff.

St. Maarten Prime Minister in a letter to the State Secretary, is asking questions about what effect will this new entity have on the country’s autonomy, its construct and the intention, since she would want to have the Parliament of St. Maarten have their say. The Prime Minister is also questioning the need for such entity. But in principal they have already agreed to the proposal and that is the only way they will get the liquidity support need. If we know anything about the Government in The Hague, they will always adjust everything in their Laws to accommodate changes they would want to make in the Sovereign State called the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and that will give them the legal grounds for amendments.

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