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ORANJESTAD – Rachnilda Arduin has been appointed as a member of a parliamentary committee of experts that is charged with developing proposals to diminish the democratic deficit within the kingdom. The other members are Mildred Schwengle (Aruba), Aubrich Bakhuis (Curacao) and Leonard Besselink (the Netherlands).The establishment of this committee is one of the results of the interparliamentary kingdom consultation (Ipko) that took place in Aruba.
It is not the first time that the Caribbean parliaments make an effort to tackle the democratic deficit. The unequal structure of the kingdom has been a source of dissatisfaction for years and it has been repeatedly on the agenda of Ipko-meetings. Seventeen year ago, in 2009, a committee presented a report entitled Choosing for the Kingdom. It contained practical advice for strengthening the feeling of commonality. The Netherlands ignored the report and never did anything with it.
The Ipko furthermore appointed St. Maarten’s president of parliament, Sarah Wescot-Williams as the leader of a group of parliamentarians that will make proposals to increase the impact of these meetings by focusing more on depth and content. These proposals will be on the agenda of the Ipko-meeting that will take place in The Hague in June of next year.
The leaders of the delegations emphasized during the signing of the list of agreements once more that the Ipko had been meaningful. In reality, previous Ipko’s have only resulted in putting issues on the agenda.
Dossierkoninrijksrelaties.nl mentions as an example the evasive dispute regulation. Already in 2010 the Kingdom Charter contained an article stating that such a regulation must be established. Successive governments led by Mark Rutte sabotaged this, while the Ipko-delegations reached an agreement about the points of departure.
Rutte, by then the leader of his third government refused to accept this because the Netherlands did not want rulings on disputes from for instance the Council of State to be binding.
Aruba produced a new law proposal that is currently for advice with the Council of State.
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