The Insiders' Guide to St. Barths: New Airport/Queen and Memorandum of Understanding

French, Dutch side
sign MOU Nov 11

PHILIPSBURG--The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the French and Dutch sides of the island will be signed on St. Martin/St. Maarten Day.

Commissioner Sarah Wescot-Williams announced the signing of this important document of cooperation during the weekly press briefing on Wednesday. The signing takes place on the island’s national holiday, Saturday. The original intention was to sign the document during the November 11 festivities last year. Preparation and approval of the document, however, took a bit longer than expected.

Governments on both sides of the island have now approved the MOU’s text. St. Maarten’s Island Council on August 24 last unanimously approved the draft MOU. The agreement arranges the trans-boundary cooperation between the North and South parts of the island. It aims at giving both sides the “practical means to embrace and develop the trans-boundary cooperation while respecting their individual identities.”

The document mentions a committee that would have to promote cooperation in fields such as the rational management of the island’s shared resources, urban and rural development, infrastructure, economy, trade, environment, improved services offered to citizens and mutual aid in case of a disaster. Periodic meetings between the two sides would be held.

Wescot-Williams said the MOU was only one of several reasons why November had turned out to be a very special month for the island. She mentioned the inauguration of the new airport terminal building this Friday, the visit of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands on Friday and Saturday, and the November 2 agreement with the Netherlands.

The Commissioner said both sides of the island had made “great strides” in the constitutional area this month. Officials from both sides coincidentally were in their “mother countries” to seal their new statuses last week. Officials of Dutch St. Maarten were in the Netherlands to negotiate and sign an agreement to attain country status, while authorities from French St. Martin and St. Barths were in Paris to ratify their new status.

Wescot-Williams in advance wished everyone a happy St. Martin/St. Maarten Day. About the visit of Queen Beatrix, Wescot-Williams said that the people of St. Maarten should be very proud to welcome her.