Dutch Parliament no longer
believes in Dec 15, 2008, date
THE HAGUE--Members of the Dutch Second Chamber are again seriously questioning the feasibility of the target date of December 15, 2008, for constitutional change. There is less than a year to go, which seems much too short, considering the little progress made in the trajectory, said several members of Parliament during a general deliberation of the permanent committee of the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba Affairs (NAAZ) on Wednesday.
State Secretary of Kingdom Relations Ank Bijleveld-Schouten has promised that she will check with the Antilles in the first two months of 2008 to see where the process is and if the target date will still be feasible. She will give a definite answer on the matter at the end of February.
NAAZ committee member Jan van Bockhove (CDA) indicated that moving the target date must not be decided unilaterally. “The Central and Island Governments must decide together with the Netherlands whether the date is still feasible.”
CDA adheres to a careful settlement of the political process and puts this before the speed of the process, Bockhove said.
PvdA Member John Leerdam said he remained with an “unsatisfying feeling” after the debates on Bijleveld-Schouten’s second periodical progress report on the constitutional process in the Netherlands Antilles. “Some colleagues do as if the Antilles has deliberately been delaying or even trying to block the process. But we must be honest. Not making the target date was obvious one year in advance. The Netherlands and the Antilles are both behind schedule.”
According to Leerdam, for the State Secretary to wait till the end of February to check how things stand will be too late. “Of course we would like to make it, considering the legislation, but it will do everybody a world of good to know as soon as possible if we are going to make it,” said Leerdam. He is of the opinion that the target date can be effective as a safety precaution. “It will keep the process sharp.”
