UPDATE, According To Antilliaans Dagblad, Coho / BZK Is LEGIT and Does NOT Overstep The Boundaries Of The Kingdom Act.
Willemstad – The Advisory Division of the Council of State (RvS) has several criticisms of the proposal for a consensus Kingdom Act Coho, such as by the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations (BZK) with regard to the CAS (island) countries of Curaçao, Aruba and Sint Maarten.
That article by Kingdom Relations Dossier under the heading “Council of State: Coho Kingdom Act contrary to Statute”. However, the Antilliaans Dagblad has learned from several good sources that the latter is not the case. “The Council of State does indeed make numerous comments and remarks, but to state that the Council of State indicates in black and white that the proposed Kingdom Act is contrary to the Statute is not correct.” As this newspaper reported last week, the proposal ‘pending’ on 10 November 2020 was ‘adopted’ on 3 March 2021 by the Council of State Advisory Department and subsequently sent to the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations, because this is the ministry that initiates the advice procedure at the Council of State has initiated, on behalf of the National Council of Ministers (RMR), in which the three Caribbean countries – Curaçao, Aruba and Sint Maarten – with their Plenipotentiary Ministers in The Hague are also represented. From information available to this newspaper, the advice was shared with the three prime ministers of the CAS islands last Friday. After all, it concerns a consensus Kingdom Act. The Council of State is emphatically not against the Netherlands attaching conditions, including the much-discussed reform, to financial aid to the CAS islands. And even calls this “self-evident”. That link was an important point of criticism from the countries, but the council agrees with this. The way in which the now outgoing State Secretary Raymond Knops (CDA) wanted to give substance to this in the implementation, however, does not receive the approval of the Council of State. According to the Council of State, the proposal is too coercive and the Coho crosses borders. The council advises not to present it in this form to the House of Representatives and three Parliament yet. The reform body Coho has far-reaching powers that also belong to the national administrations and Coho functions to a large extent under the direction of the Minister of the Interior and Kingdom Relations. “The Minister of the Interior and Kingdom Relations is not only placed above Coho, but also above the government of the country concerned,” Dossier quotes Kingdom Relations. The CAS countries also have too little say over who is at the top of Coho, according to the RvS, which thus expresses the objections that the governments in Willemstad, Oranjestad and Philipsburg have already raised in this area. The RMR, including the Ministers Plenipotentiary, decides on adopting the points of attention and criticism from the Council of State. For the island populations a lot is at stake, because the necessary financial support for political The Hague – from left to right – stands or falls with approval of the conditions. Coho is an instrument for the Netherlands to keep a grip on this. Knops has previously stated in writing that Coho will not take over any legal or administrative powers from the countries.
ANTILLIAANSDAGBLAD DAGBLAD
