Constitutional Law / Droit constitutionnel
2009
The Netherlands / Pays-Bas
In 2009, the financial crisis was dominating the Dutch constitutional debate. Dutch parliament was reflecting on its functioning to see how it could improve monitoring Dutch government on financial issues and the banking sector. Also municipalities and provinces had problems with the economic relapse. They lost enormous amounts of money that they had deposited in Iceland at the bankrupt Landsbanki. Furthermore, the plans to change the structure of the Kingdom of the Netherlands (the structure in which the Netherlands have a legal connection with the former colonies of Aruba and the Dutch Antilles) resulted in concrete proposals. In 2010 the Kingdom of the Netherlands will consist of the Netherlands, Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten as independent countries within the Kingdom. Three small western Caribbean Islands, which are now part of the Dutch Antilles, will be added to the Netherlands as special public bodies as mentioned in Article 134, Dutch Constitution. A State Commission was established by the Dutch Minister of Interior and Kingdom Relations to advise Dutch government on how the Constitution should be reformed. In 2010 the Commission will present its final report. Also, the Dutch Council on Public Administration advised to subsidise political parties without members (the new political party - Party for Liberty - does not allow new members, the Dutch Civil Code not forbidding this). Plans were made to have a new advisory body on human rights in the Netherlands. More precisely, the existing Commission on Equal Treatment will be transformed into a new College on Equal Treatment and Fundamental Rights. Also, the first formal step was taken to reform the Dutch Constitution on the issue of judicial review. After the elections, the new parliament has to take the final step to agree with this proposal of Halsema (Member of Parliament of the Green Party).
