Statement from DP faction in Parliament

As has already been asserted by all delegations coming out of the IPKO meetings on Aruba, if nothing else, the discussions were respectful and all parties were clearly bent on reaching an understanding on the matters at hand and moving forward.
It is important for the sake of the general public, to explain the purpose of these IPKO meetings and their scope. These meetings, going back many years, are aimed to bring the 4 parliaments of the Kingdom together to discuss topics of mutual interest and concern. Topics can be proposed by any of the 4 parliaments and are jointly agreed upon.
Usually, the discussions in IPKO end in resolutions to request the respective governments to follow up and provide content within the parameters agreed to by the Parliaments.
In order to prepare discussion papers on the topics for handling in subsequent IPKO meetings, smaller committees out of the IPKO delegations are commissioned with a particular task. For most of the topics on last week’s agenda, committees were already working on papers on education, the economy, youth, discrimination and integrity.
It is true that follow-up by St. Maarten from the last IPKO meeting in 2014 was not optimal due to of course the election, new parliament etc. On the other hand, St. Maarten was able to provide valuable input into the different discussions on Aruba, having had first-hand experience in matters such as interpretation differences of the Charter, Kingdom instructions etc.
IPKOs are also good platforms to exchange information, and present best practices.
All in all, I believe concrete achievements coming from IPKO meetings, in addition to participating in the meetings, are also very dependent on collaboration with the respective governments and the preparatory work to be done by the respective parliaments, mostly via their permanent commissions.
A debriefing meeting of the permanent commission for Kingdom Affairs and Internal Relations of the St. Maarten parliament will be held soonest.
Members of this commission are: MPs Marlin, W; Richardson, F.; Marlin-Romeo, L.; de Weever, C.; Matser, S. and undersigned as Chairperson.