Coast Guard law taken off
agenda until further notice
THE HAGUE--The lobbying by a delegation of the Netherlands Antilles Parliament to remove the Kingdom law on Coast Guard from the agenda of the July 4 meeting of the Dutch Second Chamber has been successful. The debate on the law has been postponed until further notice.
The lobbying efforts were spearheaded by PAR Member of Parliament Pedro Atacho. Especially Member of the Second Chamber Hans van Baalen helped the Antillean delegation to succeed in its mission.
The Netherlands Antilles is of the opinion that the Coast Guard should be regulated based on article 38 of the Charter of the Kingdom. This article states that the three countries within the Kingdom agree to cooperate with each other.
However, Dutch State Secretary for Defence Cornelis van der Knaap believes that the law on Coast Guard should be established based on article 3 of the Charter of the Kingdom in which it is stated that Kingdom affairs shall include, among other things, “maintenance of the independence and the defence of the Kingdom.”
The Dutch Government believes that with the increase in drug and human trafficking and terrorism the draft law regulating the Coast Guard should be looked at in this perspective.
Atacho stated that the Antilles objected to the procedures followed to deal with the draft law. “The Central Government requested for the draft law to be handled first in the Kingdom Council of Ministers. If the law is based on article 38 a consensus should be reached among all partners in the Kingdom Councils of Ministers before the Dutch parliament debates on the law,” he said.
According to Atacho, it’s important for the Antilles to see how the Dutch deal with procedural aspects of kingdom laws in light of future consensus Kingdom laws regarding financial and judicial matters required for the islands of the Netherlands Antilles to obtain a new constitutional status.
