THE HAGUE - The governments of Curaçao, Aruba and Sint Maarten have submitted their joint alternative to the consensus Kingdom Act desired by the Netherlands for the establishment of the Caribbean Body for Reform and Development (COHO) to State Secretary for Kingdom Relations Van Huffelen.
Van Huffelen says that she will take the time to study the proposal. She expects to discuss the content in October during an administrative meeting with prime ministers Pisas, Wever-Croes and Jacobs. She informed the Dutch House of Representatives. This means that the answers to the questions and the response to the scathing comments from the Caribbean side will also be put on hold.
Letter from Van Huffelen to the House of Representatives
On 20 May, the Kingdom Relations Committee issued its report on the draft consensus national bill for the Caribbean body for reform and development (Parliamentary Papers II, 2021/22, 36031 (R2161)). This report was accompanied by the reports of the Parliaments of Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten. On 1 July 2022, I informed you that, in view of the administrative consultation that I held on 20 June with the Prime Ministers of Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten in response to the aforementioned reports, it was not possible for you before the summer of 2022 to forward the note following the report. Although there is agreement between the countries about the goal, namely the realization of necessary reforms, there is no agreement (yet) about how that goal should be achieved.
During the administrative consultation on 20 June, it was agreed that the three countries would use this summer to work on a joint proposal for realizing the aforementioned reforms, including adequate supervision. Very recently, the countries have completed their consultations on a joint proposal. This proposal was presented to me on 1 September. Work is currently underway with the countries on organizing a new administrative consultation to discuss the countries' joint proposal for the follow-up process. This administrative meeting is expected to take place in early October.
As a result of the above state of affairs, it is currently not possible to draw up a memorandum based on the report. I think it is important to await the joint proposal from the countries and the administrative consultation on this before drawing up the memorandum on the basis of the report.