WILLEMSTAD — After Insel Air ceased operations on February 16, 2019, it was replaced by another Curacao-based airline called Jetair. Five years later, on June 18, 2024, Jetair filed for bankruptcy and the Court in First Instance confirmed its status. Both Insel Air and later Jetair were the national airlines of Curacao. Jetair was founded in 2006 as United Caribbean Airlines and rebranded as Jetair Caribbean in 2019. After the court declared both entities bankrupt, Jetair canceled all flights and the company’s planes were grounded. The trustees in the bankruptcy, attorneys of HBN Law &Tax reported the possibility of a…
Author: The Publisher
By Hilbert Haar Plans to help St. Maarten move forward in a positive direction are wonderful, unless those plans are at odds with reality, or if those plans go in the opposite direction of other plans. I remember that years ago the European Commission funded programs that aimed to discourage smoking, while the same Commission at the same time subsidized tobacco farmers in Greece. That did not make a lot of sense to me. Now we are confronted with another impressive report from the European Commission about the multiannual indicative program (MIP) for St. Maarten. Reading Annex IX of that…
PHILIPSBURG — “It is imperative for St. Maarten to look into renewable energy sources and alternative energy sources. The COVID-19 crisis has shown St. Maarten that making deep structural changes and reforms is unavoidable,” Annex IX of the European territorial multiannual indicative program (MIP) states. The program has €7.7 million (around $8.2 million at the current rate of exchange) available for initiatives in the fields of sustainable and resilient energy and cross-border cooperation. There is even more European money on the line for St. Maarten: €42.67 million ($45.66 million) through the Resilience, Sustainable Energy and Marine Biodiversity Program and €21…
GREAT BAY, St. Martin (June 24, 2024)—Dr. Rhoda Arrindell, president of the One St. Martin Association (One SXM), was the sole delegate from St. Martin at the BIG international conference on decolonization in New York last week. Arrindell was an invited speaker at the conference, “Towards Independence and Fundamental Freedoms: The Role of the C-24 in Ending Colonialism,” hosted by the Baku Initiative Group (BIG) at the United Nations headquarters in New York City. Arrindell read the One SXM statement on June 20, highlighting the association’s ongoing campaign “to bring awareness to the St. Martin and international communities about St.…
THE HAGUE — Is someone convicted if a court finds a defendant guilty and punishable but does not impose a sanction? The Supreme Court considered this question “in the interest of the law” after the Common Court of Justice in Curacao ruled that in such circumstances a defendant does not become a convict. Now there is clarity: a conviction that does not contain a sanction (like imprisonment, community service or a fine) is a conviction for a crime, as described in Curacao’s national ordinance integrity candidate-ministers. After the Court in First Instance and the Common Court of Justice arrived at…
PHILIPSBURG — The structure of the tariffs used by Utilities Company GEBE are a stumbling block on the road to energy transition, it appears from a report by TNO, the independent Dutch organization for scientific research. Currently, GEBE charges a base tariff of 0.25 guilders ($0.13) and a variable component for the cost of fuel, the so-called fuel clause. This clause covers the cost of the fuel GEBE has to buy to power its diesel-generators and the base-tariff should cover the company’s operational costs – but it doesn’t. TNO published its report entitled The energy transition of Aruba, Curacao and…
PHILIPSBURG — The Common Court of Justice will appoint Greg Becker of the Canadian real estate management company Colliers as appraiser for providing an advice about the fair value of Mullet Bay. Collier was established in 1976 and is headquartered in Toronto. The company has around 19,000 employees in 400 offices in 66 countries. Colliers’ annual revenue is $4.5 billion and it has $98 billion worth of assets under management. Greg Becker is an associate managing director for West Palm Beach and the Caribbean. The court decided to appoint the appraiser because the parties disputing court rulings about insurance company…
PHILIPSBURG – The faction of the National Alliance (NA) has requested an urgent meeting of parliament with the objective to establish an amendment to the national budget to facilitate the purchase of generators for utilities company GEBE. The NA states in a press release that it is dissatisfied with the lack of clarity after a meeting with Prime Minister Mercelina to discuss solutions for the energy crisis. NA-MP and former Minister of Finance Ardwell Irion strongly disagrees with Mercelina’s statement that renting a power barge (a proposed solution) is too expensive. “I do not believe that any solution which can…
PHILIPSBURG — Two new political parties will contest the August 19 parliamentary elections: the Soualiga Action Movement (SAM) and the Oualichi Movement for Change (OMC). The founder of the latter party is businessman Olivier Arrindell. The Electoral Council confirmed the party’s retroactive registration per May 31, 2024. Nathalie Tackling, the chairlady of the Electoral Council confirmed that both parties are eligible to take part in the elections. The admission of both parties is based on “an instruction by the prime minister to adhere to June 17 as the deadline for registration,” Tackling told StMaartenNews.com. The legal basis for this decision…
THE HAGUE — Instead of Nicolien van Vroonhoven-Kok, the number two on the list of Pieter Omtzigt’s party New Social Contract (NSC), Zsolt Szabo, a member of Geert Wilders’ anti-immigration Party for Freedom (PVV) will become the new State Secretary for Digitalization and Kingdom Relations. That is, as the Dutch newspaper Trouw reported, “bad news for the islands.” Ferenc Zsolt Szabo is described as a seasoned politician for the VVD, but his appointment to the post is on behalf of the PVV. Szabo, 62, is currently the vice-president of IT-company Capgemini and the vice-chairman of ECP, a platform that promotes…
