PHOTO CUTLINE: Left, President of Parliament Hon. Rodolphe Samuel and Secretary General to Parliament Josef Semeleer, Council of State Vice President Piet Hein Donner (2nd right), Council of State Secretary H.H.C. Visser (3rd right) and other members of Donner’s delegation.
On Friday President of Parliament Hon. Rodolphe Samuel met with the Council of State Vice President Piet Hein Donner and his delegation at the House of Parliament
The two main issues discussed during the meeting was the perceived relationship between Holland and Sint Maarten especially with respect to comments made by Opposition members of the Dutch Second Chamber of Parliament. President Samuel is of the opinion that the Dutch coalition needs to address the matter by stating that the statements made by the Dutch opposition MPs are not the opinion of the Dutch Government.
The other issue discussed is the suggestion of an Identification Card for the residents of Curacao, Aruba, Sint Maarten and the BES islands (Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba) that would facilitate travel without any hindrance between the islands similar to travel when the islands were part of the the former Netherlands Antilles. This topic was discussed in the last IPOK parliamentary conference several weeks ago.