Expert group on “democratic deficit within the Kingdom,” report due within nine months

THE HAGUE--The four parliamentary delegations participating in the IPKO have confirmed that follow-up has been given to agreements made during IPKO held June 7–10, 2024 in The Hague, including the formal establishment of an expert group titled “Democratic deficit within the Kingdom.”

The delegations stated that the expert group is tasked with delivering a report to IPKO within a nine-month period calculated from January 1, 2026, focusing on:

• Existing and new proposals to reduce the democratic deficit within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and
• The scope and meaning of key provisions in the Charter for the Kingdom, including Articles 3, 11, 26, 27, 38, 43, and 51.

IPKO is the interparliamentary consultation platform through which delegations from the parliaments of Aruba, Curaçao, the Netherlands, and St. Maarten meet to discuss Kingdom-wide issues and agree on follow-up actions.

Composition of the expert group

The expert group is comprised of one expert designated by each delegation:

• On behalf of the Parliament of Aruba: Mildred Schwengle
• On behalf of the Parliament of Curaçao: Aubrich Bakhuis
• On behalf of the Parliament of St. Maarten: Rachnilda Arduin
• On behalf of the Kingdom Relations committees of the States General of the Netherlands: Leonard Besselink

The establishment of the expert group reflects a shared intent by the four delegations to move from recurring discussion toward structured analysis and actionable proposals, with the expectation that the group’s findings will guide future IPKO deliberations and follow-up.

The phrase “democratic deficit within the Kingdom” is usually used for a structural gap in representation and accountability at Kingdom level: decisions on “Kingdom affairs” are taken by the Kingdom Government and processed through Dutch parliamentary structures, while most residents of Aruba, Curaçao, and St. Maarten do not have a direct vote for the Dutch House of Representatives or Senate, and their parliaments cannot hold the Kingdom Government to account in the same way. Legal and constitutional commentary commonly summarizes the deficit as a lack of democratic representation for people in the Caribbean countries in Kingdom-level decision-making, even though Kingdom legislation and policy can apply to them.

The Dutch Caribbean countries have been flagging this as a recurring Kingdom problem for many years, particularly as Kingdom legislation and Kingdom-level oversight questions touch core areas like nationality, border control, and safeguarding duties under the Charter. The issue is widely documented as long-standing, with formal attempts to map solutions going back at least to the 2009 IPKO-commissioned work “Kiezen voor het Koninkrijk,” which examined options such as extending voting rights for Dutch national elections to residents of Aruba, Curaçao, and St. Maarten, or other structural reforms. More recently, IPKO again described the democratic deficit as extensively discussed over many years, noting that earlier recommendations have often not been followed through.

Recent high-level advisory work also frames the deficit as part of wider friction in the Kingdom’s design, where the Netherlands’ size and institutional dominance makes tension predictable, and where the balance between autonomy, safeguarding, and joint decision-making remains contested. The Advisory Division of the Council of State, in its “70 years Charter” advisory opinion, explicitly discusses the structural tension and points toward strengthening equivalence between countries and citizens, which is one of the core complaints that sits underneath “democratic deficit” debates. In practice, the Dutch Caribbean countries have repeatedly returned to the same underlying point: equality in status is difficult to reconcile with unequal influence over Kingdom decisions, which is why the topic keeps resurfacing at IPKO and in successive position papers and advisory discussions.

Photo caption: left to right: Rachnilda Arduin and Mildred Schwengle, Aubrich Bakhuis and Leonard Besselink.

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