Within the framework of the visit of Aruba’s parliamentary delegation to the Netherlands, Member of Parliament Shailiny Tromp-Lee gave a positive assessment of the meetings held with members of the Raad van State (Council of State). According to Tromp-Lee, the results of the latest advice published by this body align perfectly with the position that the MEP faction and the coalition have been supporting in the legal and constitutional debate.
Tromp-Lee began by expressing her total satisfaction with the reception and the high level of the meetings in The Hague. “We are very satisfied with the meeting we held with the members of the Raad van State,” the MP declared, indicating that the encounter served to provide formal clarity on the most weighty matters currently under discussion between Aruba and the Netherlands.
For the MP, the central point of the new advice is that it legally ratifies that the loan and the conditions presented by the Netherlands through the Kingdom Law (Rijkswet) place a direct limitation on Aruba’s financial autonomy.
Tromp-Lee highlighted that this is not a personal interpretation, but a structural conclusion that validates the concerns voiced by the people and the political parties in Aruba. “The advice of the Raad van State is a structural confirmation of what we, as the MEP faction along with the coalition, have been formally advocating for,” she emphasized. “This advice gives us the formal legal basis to show that Aruba’s concerns were and remain valid.”
Another crucial aspect brought forward by Tromp-Lee is the lack of technical clarity regarding the refinancing of the loans. According to the MP, the advisory body itself (Raad van State) indicated that in the documents presented by the Netherlands, there is no clear or obvious specification of which structural loans will be refinanced and which will not.
This lack of transparency weakens the presentation of figures previously made in Aruba by the ministers concerned, characterizing the basis of those figures as incomplete, given that the high-ranking body in the Netherlands itself does not yet have those details formalized.
Finally, the MP regretted that some media outlets, specifically citing the portal Koninkrijksrelaties, tried to divert attention or published the advice out of its real context, pretending that the Raad van State did not see a threat to autonomy.
Tromp-Lee confirmed that the Aruban delegation stands united in this defense and thanked the members of the Raad van State for their honesty and for the open space to clarify all cardinal points. Now, as she concluded, the final debate will have to be balanced and formally decided where it belongs: within the Parliament of Aruba.
