SXMElections.com

THE HAGUE--The four countries of the Kingdom generally agree that the Council of State would be an ideal body to handle the dispute arrangement. However, the negotiations to reach an agreement have not been successful thus far.

Dutch Minister of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations Ronald Plasterk confirmed during a debate with the Permanent Committee for Kingdom Relations of the Second Chamber of the Dutch Parliament on Wednesday that no consensus had been reached on establishing a dispute arrangement. There are less than four weeks to go until the June 16 Kingdom Conference in Curaçao where the dispute arrangement is one of the agenda points.

The Council of State is a logical choice to act as a body for the assessment of disputes between the Kingdom partners, said Plasterk. Making use of the Council of State means that no new, specific arrangement or body would have to be created. "The structure is there, as is the constitutional basis," said Plasterk.

There are several stumbling blocks in the negotiations between Aruba, Curaçao, St. Maarten and the Netherlands. Parties have been talking about the range of the dispute arrangement and whether its advice should be binding.

Member of Parliament (MP) André Bosman of the governing liberal democratic VVD party said that in his party's opinion the advice should not be binding. "I will always defend the interests of the 16-plus million people in the Netherlands, because ultimate responsibility for the Kingdom is ours," he said.

Bosman made an issue of the representation of the countries in the dispute arrangement. The overseas countries want a say that is equal to that of the Netherlands, but political support for this is lacking in The Hague. Bosman said he wanted a proportional representation. "If you would ask me I would have one for each of the overseas countries and 354 for the Netherlands," Bosman said.

Plasterk said the large asymmetry in the Kingdom with the Netherlands as the biggest country was a given. "It is a fact that 98 per cent of the Kingdom is determined by the Netherlands." However, a consensus will have to be found because, as he put it, "Ultimately, everyone needs to feel comfortable with the dispute arrangement."

Plasterk said the role of the Kingdom Council of Ministers also had to be considered. "Now it is the Kingdom Council of Ministers that takes the decision on difficult matters. It takes careful consideration when you put that final decision in the hands of another entity."

MP Roelof van Laar of the governing Labour Party PvdA said that if the range was a problem, maybe parties should agree to start with a dispute arrangement in a smaller format. He called on Plasterk to solve the issue of the dispute arrangement at the Kingdom Conference. "That would be a great result," he said.

MP Wassila Hachchi of the Democratic Party D66 said it was "very important" to arrive at a solution and to make progress on this complex topic. "Otherwise we will be discussing this every year. We can't keep on arguing about this for years," she said.

MP Ronald van Raak of the Socialist Party (SP) said he fully supported a dispute arrangement, but objected to such an arrangement replacing the political decision-taking process.

"Aruba, Curaçao and St. Maarten want to have the interpretation of the guarantee function looked at. That is a matter with a rather high political content.

I think we should do something about expectation management. A dispute arrangement cannot be the solution for political differences of opinion," he said.

Plasterk agreed with Van Raak and said it remained important to make a political judgement when assessing a dispute. He mentioned the establishing of an Integrity Chamber for St. Maarten.

"In a case like this, one would also have to look at the issue of good governance. A dispute arrangement then would be not only about a procedural assessment. The Kingdom Council of Ministers is the body that takes the final decision. You don't want that taking place outside the reach of the Parliamentary control," he said.

He said that while he hoped to reach an agreement on the dispute arrangement with the Prime Ministers of Aruba, Curaçao and St. Maarten at the Kingdom Conference, the completion and fine-tuning of the arrangement would have to take place after that.

Plasterk was cautiously optimistic about the upcoming Kingdom Conference: "These conferences are useful for the relations. This will be the third Kingdom Conference. So far the talks have been positive, constructive. The conferences also provide an opportunity to have informal talks." He said it was useful to not get together only when there were problems.