THE HAGUE--The liberal democratic VVD party wants the caretaker Balkenende cabinet to immediately cease debt reorganisation payments to the Netherlands Antilles.
Member of Dutch Parliament (MP) Frans Weekers, VVD's financial affairs spokesman, said on Wednesday that stopping the debt reorganisation would save some 700 million euros this year.
"The execution of the agreement with the Netherlands Antilles (the November 2006 Final Accord-Ed.) has suffered a delay, and this results in the entities on the islands taking longer to comply with the conditions that are tied to the debt reorganisation. That is why VVD wants an end to the debt reorganisation," said Weekers.
He made his statement the day after it was decided, in a meeting of the Second Dutch Parliament Chamber's Permanent Committee for Antillean and Aruban Affairs NAAZ, that Parliament would handle the Antillean constitutional restructuring laws as planned.
A majority in Parliament wants to proceed with the laws to dismantle the Netherlands Antilles and establish the BES islands Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba as "public entities" and Curaçao and St. Maarten as autonomous countries within the Dutch Kingdom.
The VVD party has not objected to handling the laws for the BES islands, but is against a few of the Kingdom Consensus laws, including the one regulating the police organisations of the new entities.
The Party for Freedom PVV and Socialist Party (SP) want the entire Antilles dossier declared "controversial," meaning that the handling of legislation should be put on hold until a new Parliament has taken over.
