Caribbean Netherlands

Kingdom of the Netherlands including the BES Islands

The Caribbean Netherlands ( Dutch: Caribisch Nederland ) consists of the three islands of Bonaire , Sint Eustatius and Saba and their subsidiary islands in the Caribbean . They were part of the Netherlands Antilles until they were dissolved on October 10, 2010 . Since then they have been special municipalities (Dutch: bijzondere gemeenten ) of the Netherlands . They are also called BES islands (Dutch: BES-eilanden , an acronym ).

Dutch laws are not “automatically” valid in the Caribbean Netherlands, so they form a separate legal territory within the Netherlands.

Special parish	CBS code	Capital	Biggest city	Area (km²)	Resident January 1, 2016	Inhabitants per km²
Bonaire	9001	Kralendijk	Kralendijk	288	19,408	67
St. Eustatius	9002	Oranjestad	Oranjestad	21st	3,193	152
Saba	9003	The bottom	The bottom	13	1,947	150

history

The island areas (Dutch: eilandgebieden ) Bonaire, Saba and Sint Eustatius, together with other Caribbean areas, were part of the autonomous region of the Netherlands Antilles, which was newly founded in 1954 .

Before the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles, the opinion of the population on the whereabouts of their islands was asked in referendums . Only Sint Eustatius decided to stay in the national association of the Netherlands Antilles, but was alone with his opinion, as all the other islands were in favor of dissolution. Since then, politicians on this island, as well as those of Bonaire and Saba, have advocated direct relations with the Netherlands. On October 11, 2006, Bonaire, Saba and Sint Eustatius agreed with the Dutch government to integrate the islands into the Netherlands as “special municipalities”.

On October 10, 2010, the national association of the Netherlands Antilles was dissolved, and on January 1, 2011, the US dollar replaced the previously valid Antilles guilder as legal tender. The Antilles guilder expired within a month in the special municipalities, but remained the currency on Curaçao and Sint Maarten .

The dissolution of the national association of the Netherlands Antilles and the incorporation of the islands into the Netherlands had no direct impact on the status of the islands as overseas territories associated with the European Union (“OCT”).

With the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles, its police authority, the Korps Politie Nederlandse Antillen (KPNA), was also dissolved. For the BES Islands, the Corps Politie Caribisch Nederland took its place .

A decision that has been possible since October 10, 2015 (five years after the constitution of the Caribbean Netherlands) as to whether the BES Islands will be included in the European Union as the outermost regions in accordance with Article 355 (1) of the TFEU has not yet been made like. (Status: June 2018) Then European law would apply in principle with exceptions and the islands would also belong to the tax and customs area of ​​the European Union.

See also

• Dutch Caribbean

Individual evidence

1. ↑ CBS StatLine - Caribbean Nederland; bevolking (1 januari); slaughtered, leeftijd. In: cbs.nl. statline.cbs.nl, accessed on November 29, 2016 . 
2. ↑ Frequently asked questions. De Nederlandsche Bank , archived from the original on March 23, 2012 ; Retrieved June 26, 2011 (Dutch, English, Spanish, Papiamento). 
3. ↑ What has changed, are the national herindeling van het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden? Archived from the original on May 24, 2011 ; Retrieved November 10, 2010 . 
4. ↑ Heinrich Winter u. a .: Vijf jaar Caribisch Nederland. De werking van wetgeving , Rijksuniversiteit Groningen 2015, accessed on November 27, 2017.