On August 23, 2019 a Presidium meeting of the Tripartite was held on Curaçao. The Chairlady of Parliament, Mrs. S.A. Wescot- Williams, the Vice Chairman of the Committee of Kingdom Affairs and Interparliamentary Relations, Mr. C.A.H. Peterson and the 1st Acting Secretary-General of Parliament, Mrs. A.A. Groen-Gumbs were in attendance.
The agenda points for this Presidium meeting were:
1. Update on how the Venezuela situation is affecting these three countries;
2. Further handling of the Kingdom Law Kingdom Disputes (Rijkswet Koninkrijksgeschillen) in the First Chamber. This Kingdom Law was approved on July 4, 2019 by the Second Chamber in the Netherlands.
The Kingdom Law Kingdom Disputes’ aim is to present a procedure for the settlement of disputes arising between one or more Caribbean countries on the one hand and the Kingdom on the other hand.
The Kingdom Law Kingdom Disputes that was recently passed did not meet the requirements of article 12a of the Kingdom Charter according to experts in the Netherlands, hence confirming the arguments brought forward by the three islands Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten over the past few years.
This Presidium meeting was held in preparation of the upcoming Tripartite in January 2020 as well as a follow up to what was discussed in June of this year.
The three Caribbean countries of the Kingdom, Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten, meet every so often in a Tripartite meeting to discuss issues of common interest. These meetings can be held in any of the three countries.
The last Tripartite was held in the Hague, the Netherlands on June 24, 2019. The next Tripartite will be held in Curaçao on January 6, 2020.