State Secretary Raymond Knops spoke of the financial crisis at the St. Maarten airport early this year during the handling of the law proposal to establish a Dispute Regulation for the Kingdom.
THE HAGUE–The financial situation at St. Maarten’s Princess Juliana International Airport (PJIA) in February this year was of such a critical and urgent nature that the Dutch government explored the option of intervention.
Dutch State Secretary of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations Raymond Knops divulged this on Tuesday during the plenary handling of the law proposal to establish a Dispute Regulation for the Kingdom, a meeting that was attended by representatives of the Dutch Caribbean countries.
Knops mentioned the St. Maarten airport as one of the examples for which the Kingdom Council of Ministers might have deviated from an advice of the Council of State as a result of the Dispute Regulation. The other two examples he gave were the situation in St. Maarten shortly after devastation by Hurricane Irma and the curbing of financial supervision by the Aruba Parliament.
Knops informed the Second Chamber of the fact that the St. Maarten airport was “on the brink of bankruptcy” a few months ago.
“The situation is still worrisome, but in February this year, there was an acute danger of collapsing. I am not talking about the physical building, but about the finances,” he said.
PJIA suffered major damage during Hurricane Irma. At that time, he had the option of intervention looked at, Knops acknowledged. “Because standing on the side, looking at how things crash, that is not what we see as assisting each other in the Kingdom. Imagine what the consequences of a sudden, uncontrolled bankruptcy would have been for the St. Maarten people.”
Not only would the already fragile economy have been badly hurt, but basic human needs would have been endangered, he noted. “It concerned questions like: can we guarantee the delivery of medication? Can we fly out people who urgently need medical attention abroad?”
And, even though a solution was found with the St. Maarten government by pledging a US $100 million loan, partly from the Dutch government and partly from the European Investment Bank (EIB), it was an acute issue that required immediate action.
“Bankruptcy and possible intervention were a matter of days, not weeks. We didn’t have the time to ponder. We didn’t have eight to 10 weeks for a legal discussion. Thank goodness, we were able to solve this, but it was a close call,” Knops said.
Making a case to include what he called “safety valves” in the new Dispute Regulation that the Dutch government has proposed, he wondered what would have happened if St. Maarten and the Netherlands had not reached an agreement on the airport and acute intervention in the interest of the St. Maarten people had been necessary.
The other example Knops mentioned regarding the need for safety valves in the Dispute Regulation was the situation immediately after Hurricane Irma in September 2017.
“A very chaotic situation was looming, threatening public order and safety. It was almost impossible to get in touch with the St. Maarten government in those days. Thanks to the military and the St. Maarten citizens, the situation didn’t get out of hand.”
According to Knops, the Kingdom government might have had the need to intervene in that situation right after Irma. “Imagine that a formal objection was made in the Kingdom Council of Ministers against this intervention and the Dispute Regulation without safety valves was in place. Would it have been acceptable under those circumstances that a ruling would have kept St. Maarten from total chaos?”
Aruba was Knops’ third example; more specifically, last month’s decision of the Aruba Parliament to amend the national ordinance regulating financial supervision in such a way that the Kingdom Council of Ministers would no longer be able to supervise Aruba’s finances. “That was against the agreements that we made with the Aruba government,” he said.
Knops announced that his ministry was exploring the option of intervention in case Aruba continued down this road. He said a formal objection and procedure based on the Dispute Regulation with a binding advice could result in additional problems for Aruba, such as unrest on the financial markets, a reduced credit rating, deteriorating lending conditions and an increasing interest rate.
The plenary debate on the draft Kingdom Law Dispute Regulation started on Tuesday and will continue today, Thursday. Parties agreed to postpone the debate for two days in the hope of finding a compromise.
Source: The Daily Herald https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/88856-intervention-was-option-in-st-maarten-airport-crisis
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