From St. Maarten Island Time

PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten – On April 16th , 2016, a delegation consisting of twelve members of the Senate “First Chamber” will travel to the Caribbean part of the Kingdom.

The delegation, headed by the chairman of the standing committee for Kingdom Relations of the Senate, Ruard Ganzevoort, will pay working visits to respectively Curacao, Aruba, Bonaire, Saba, St. Eustatius and St. Maarten. The delegation will visit Bonaire on April 19th , Saba on April 20th and Statia on April 21st.

For the standing committee of Kingdom Relations of the Senate the parliamentary year 2015-2016 is largely devoted to the parliamentary debate on the evaluations of the new constitutional structure in the Kingdom, as has been completed on October 10th, 2010.

In October 2015 the Chamber received the report of the evaluation committee drafting the new constitutional structure Caribbean Netherlands “Vijf jaar verbonden” (committee Spies).

Earlier, she received evaluation reports on the Judicial Kingdom Laws and the “Kingdom Law Financial Supervision Curacao and St. Maarten”, which went into effect in 2010. The commission is partly still awaiting the government’s responses to these reports and will be in a debate with the Minister of Interior Affairs and Kingdom Relations on June 21st , 2016, in order to take stock of the situation.

The trip is intended to broaden the parliamentary discussion and is a preparation for the debate. On the islands the delegation will further exchange views on experiences with the new constitutional structure and its regulation, in addition to the reactions they received earlier from the Caribbean part of the Kingdom.

In addition to administrative and political responses, the delegation is also particularly interested in the experiences of various sectors of society and the people in general and has therefore planned meetings with representatives of civil society, NGO’s and the inhabitants.

The meeting on Bonaire is on Tuesday, April 19th from 4:00 PM till 6:00 PM at El Mundo, on Saba on Wednesday, April 20th from 6:15 PM till 8:15 PM at the Breadline Plaza and St. Eustatius on Thursday, April 21th, from 5:00 PM till 7:00 PM at Mega D Youth Foundation.

For a number of members of the Kingdom Relations Committee, who were newly elected in 2015, this is also an introductory visit to this part of the Kingdom.

The delegation consists of the following members:

Prof. dr. R.R. Ganzevoort (chairman of the delegation, GroenLinks)

W.H. Huijbregts-Schiedon (VVD)

Prof. dr. S.C. van Bijsterveld (CDA)

Prof. mr. J.W.M. Engels (D66)

Mr. C.J. Kok (PVV)

M.P. Meijer (SP)

Dr. R.L. Vreeman (PvdA)

Dr. P. Ester (ChristenUnie)

Drs. Ch. Teunissen (PvdD)

Mr. D.J.H. van Dijk (SGP)

J.G. Nagel (50PLUS)

Drs. H. ten Hoeve (OSF)

Drs. F. Bergman, deputy registrar

Drs. M. Prenger, staff member

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