New status building blocks
prepared for BES Islands
THE HAGUE--The building blocks for the integration of Bonaire, Saba and St. Eustatius in the Netherlands as a ‘public entity’ will be ready when the Kingdom Council of Ministers approves a package of draft legislation this Friday.
Andrée van Es, Director General of the Dutch Ministry of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations sounded optimistic in her remarks at the start of the so-called BES week on Monday morning. The BES week entails a weeklong series of meetings in the Netherlands with Dutch ministries giving presentations to Bonaire, Saba and St. Eustatius. It is the fourth time that a BES week is being organised.
Van Es explained that the ministries have prepared a large package of draft legislation to facilitate the transfer of the BES islands in the transitional phase. “It is the result of a lot of work and great efforts in a very short time. When the Kingdom Council of Ministers approves this package, it will mean that the building blocks are ready,” she said, noting that the Council of State would also be rendering advice on this matter.
Van Es hoped the BES week would result in concrete agreements in preparation for “important steps” in 2009/2010 as well as the Round Table Conference, to be held December 15 this year. “The BES week provides a good opportunity have profound discussions about our joint future and to come to agreements,” she said. All of this should lead to concrete improvement for the people on the three islands. In this sense, the Netherlands was working on concrete proposals.
The Netherlands is proposing a phased approach for the integration of the BES islands. Investments and improvements in the four main pillars, justice, education, social welfare and public health, cannot be implemented in one day, said Van Es. “We want to exchange our thoughts with you on that,” she said.
Van Es hopes that agreements can be reached in Thursday’s political meeting with Dutch State Secretary of Kingdom Relations Ank Bijleveld-Schouten. “It will be a busy week, a week with a lot of meetings. But we consider this very much worthwhile. Together we will work hard on the BES, on our joint future,” she concluded.
After Van Es’ opening words, the delegations of Saba and Bonaire were updated on the Dutch approach for a phased implementation of the new status for the BES islands. Statia’s delegation could not attend Monday morning’s opening, because they only arrived on Monday due to the strike of Air France pilots. Justice and safety were also on the agenda for Monday.
In the course of the week, the BES delegations will visit the various ministries where they will be updated on the efforts of the individual departments. Visits are planned to the ministries of Social Affairs and Employment; Finance; Economic Affairs; Education, Culture and Science; Traffic and Water Management; Public Health, Wellbeing and Sports; Public Housing, Physical Planning and Environmental Management; Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality; Foreign Affairs.
