Richardson tells of ‘big,
fundamental differences’
PHILIPSBURG--There are still “big and fundamental” differences of opinion between the Netherlands and the Netherlands Antilles regarding the establishment of financial supervision. However, Project Director Constitutional Affairs Dennis Richardson says he remains optimistic that the differences of opinion can be worked out.
Richards and Workgroup Constitutional Affairs Chairman Eugene Holiday attended a two-day meeting with Dutch technocrats on financial supervision, in Curaçao last week Thursday and Friday. The meetings were led by former prime minister Etienne Ys who is the special advisor to the Central Government pertaining to financial matters.
Richardson acknowledged earlier reports in The Daily Herald that headway had been made compared to the meetings held in St. Maarten on March 5 and 6, but said the process was not easy.
“The Dutch have a different concept of financial supervision compared to our vision on how the correct application should be, based on the November 2, 2006, final statement. We made progress on a number of topics, but there are whales of important points we haven’t reached full agreement on,” Richardson said.
He declined to go into details about the points of no agreement, stating that it would not be wise to give details at this time, because the negotiations were still ongoing and he had to brief Constitutional Affairs Commissioner Sarah Wescot-Williams on the meeting in Curaçao. He said that drafts of a Kingdom law establishing financial supervision had been discussed.
He said maybe these points of discussion should be lifted to a level of political discussion, but the decision to do so hadn’t been made as yet. Dutch State Secretary of Kingdom Relations Ank Bijleveld-Schouten and Dutch Justice Minister Ernst Hirsh Ballin are scheduled to visit the Netherlands Antilles at the end of June and a meeting of the political steering group is planned to take place on June 22.
However, the project groups have not made a report to indicate to the politicians that the time has come for political decision-taking on the matter. “The agreement is that, if necessary, the project group will make a report,” Richardson said
The project groups working on Constitutional Affairs are scheduled to meet again in the beginning of July.
