By Hilbert Haar St. Maarten’s judicial system contains a unique institution: the Constitutional Court. No other country in the Kingdom of the Netherlands has such a court. Is that good or bad? First of all it is good to remember that local politicians were soundly asleep when they approved a huge pile of legislation during the last meeting of the territory’s Island Council back in 2010. The Island Council members rubberstamped everything and made the establishment of the Constitutional Court a non-item. Fact: not the local Parliament but the Constitutional Court is the highest authority in Sint Maarten. The Parliament…
Author: The Publisher
PHILIPSBURG — The Dutch judicial system could do with a makeover that had the potential to spill over to St. Maarten. Geert Corstens, a former President of the Supreme Court in The Hague made the suggestion during an interview on the TV-program Buitenhof in the wake of the childcare benefits scandal and the controversy surrounding Minister of Justice and Security Ferdinand Grapperhaus after he broke the rules of social distancing at his own wedding. The Grapperhaus-controversy is small beer compared to the childcare benefits scandal. In that case, 26,000 parents and 70,000 children were affected by unlawful actions of the…
PHILIPSBURG — St. Maarten appears not to be the brightest bulb on Broadway where securing funding from the European Development fund (EDF) is concerned. But the relationship between St. Maarten – with its status as OCT (Overseas Country and Territory) – and the European Union remains intact. The Union has committed to support its OCTs for the next seven years (2021-2027). Therefore there is time for St. Maarten to clean up its act and become a more active and successful participant in the battle for EU-millions. In December of last year, the EU hosted a virtual OCT-Forum. The news there…
Philipsburg – “It is truly remarkable how the people of St. Maarten had to be subjected to media reports of another groundbreaking ceremony at the Princess Juliana International Airport (PJIA) without a single mention of US Pre-Clearance,” remarked Stuart Johnson former Minister of Tourism, Economic Affairs, Transportation and Telecommunication (TEATT). “When last has the committee for US Pre-Clearance had a meeting? What is the vision and position of the NA/UP Coalition Government regarding US Pre-Clearance? Have the collective individual positions of the various supporting Members of Parliament (MPs) changed or what is their view now? Have there been any developments…
~ WordFun: collect letters to win amazing prizes – The end-of-year prize-fest from Fun Miles & partners ~PHILIPSBURG – The word is out: Fun Miles cardholders should brace themselves for a stunning amount of prizes in the new end-of-year campaign: WordFun. Grand prizes include a full year operational lease of a brand-new Toyota Corolla Cross from Real Auto (including a full year of insurance from ENNIA and fuel from Petro Plus), 2 tickets to Curaçao from JetAir and more. The game is easy: shop at the Fun Partners, collect WordFun cards with letter tiles and form the required words on…
PHILIPSBURG — St. Maarten misses out on millions of European subsidies because the government is unable – or incapable, or unwilling – to write the proper project proposals that would unlock these funds. A column published on the website dossierkoninkrijksrelaties.nl under the headline Message from Sint Maarten, written by StMaartenNews.com publisher Terrance Rey, examines this rather baffling phenomenon. The column mentions a €14 million ($16.2 million) subsidy for the establishment of a polytechnic university on the island and a €4 million ($4.6 million) subsidy for an aquaponics project. The university never materialized because the government failed to submit the required…
PHILIPSBURG — The St. Maarten Carnival Development Foundation (SCDF) is hard at work preparing for the local shows of Carnival 2022 and over the weekend announced the prizes and main approach for the Carnival Queen Pageants. All four of the SCDF’s pageants are on the schedule for Carnival 2022: The Junior, Teen, Senior and Mature Carnival Queen Pageants. Vice President of the SCDF Paula Gordon (right in photo), who is also the Pageant Coordinator, explained that in a typical Carnival year, the biggest challenge for pageant contestants is raising funds for pageant preparations. “This is definitely not a typical year…
PHILIPSBURG — After a hiatus of two years Carnival is once again on the calendar for 2022. The St. Maarten Carnival Development Foundation (SCDF) announced 24 days of Carnival events, beginning with the opening of the Carnival Village on April 16 and ending with the burning of King Momo on May 3. Before the opening of the village there are five pre-Carnival events. The SCDF will establish strict COVID-19 protocols to protect revelers against infection and it has scrapped all jump-ups and Jouvert morning. The only road events are the Children Parade (April 17) and the Grand Carnival Parade (May…
PHILIPSBURG — The Sol Group has committed to a $66 million investment in the St. Maarten economy between 2015 and 2025, through capital investment and community support, General Manager Robert-Jan James stated in a press release. “We are excited by the opportunity to play a key role in enabling sustainable energy solutions in St. Maarten now and for generations.” The company is the leading provider of energy solutions in the Caribbean. At the recent Carilec (Caribbean Electric Utility Services Corporation) conference, Sol announced the introduction of Ecolution, promising to deliver on its commitment “to energize the communities we serve by…
PHILIPSBURG — The landfill on Pond Island, commonly referred to as the dump, remains a bone of contention now that 200 residents who live near it have to be relocated. The government has done basically nothing about the health hazards the dump represents, nor has it addressed the deplorable housing conditions of the residents that will sooner or later have to go and live elsewhere. Chantelle Jessurun, daugther of St. Maarten Consumers Coalition’s (SMCC) co-coordinator Drs. Raymond Jessurun, prepared a policy brief for the Social Economic Council (SER) that contains a few key recommendations for the government. The brief recommends…
