Seven out of nine motions proposed last week were passed by majority vote in the Dutch Second Chamber of Parlia­ment on Tuesday, May 21.

The motions requesting that the Dutch govern­ment assess the impact of increasing the minimum wage on small businesses in the Caribbean Netherlands and that the government monitor whether the steps that have been taken to in­crease the social minimum on Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba have been suffi­cient were both passed.

So did the motions that focus on discussing the construction of Saba’s new harbour with stakehold­ers in both Saba and the Netherlands, opening an entrepreneurial centre on Saba and St. Eustatius, and ensuring proper data col­lection in the Caribbean Netherlands.

Member of Parliament (MP) Peter van Haasen withdrew from the plenary vote his motion requesting that the government not increase the free allowance of public entity Bonaire. This because, after making his proposal, Van Haasen has had “good conversa­tions with various admin­istrators in various tiers of government,” in which they agreed to reconsider in­creasing the public entity’s faction compensation. That was the goal of his motion, so now “the ball is in the public entity’s park.”

Van Haasen did not fully withdraw his motion. “In case of an unsatisfactory result, it [the motion — Ed.] will still be put up for a ple­nary vote and we will make use of our budgeting right,” Van Haasen said.

MP Jan Paternotte (D66) also withdrew his motion to decrease fuel tax in the Ca­ribbean Netherlands.

The Daily Herald.