Text 8558, 50 rader
Skriven 2010-06-11 07:17:08 av Robert Bashe (2:2448/44)
   Kommentar till text 8538 av Michiel van der Vlist (2:280/5555)
Ärende: Federal vs Royal
========================
Michiel van der Vlist wrote to Robert Bashe on Thursday June 10 2010 at 21:58:

RB>> That _does_ seem strange. Does that mean Aruba is not part of the EU,
RB>> although the Netherlands is/are?

MV> Just like Aruba and the Netherlands, Canada and the UK share a queen,

That's now _quite_ the same, Michiel. Canada is not an "autonomous region" of
the United Kingdom.

MV> The UK is part of the EU, Canada is not.

Undoubtedly, but it also is not part of the United Kingdom. All the above still
doesn't answer my question, but I've meanwhile found the (very complex) answer
at

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Member_State_territories_and_the_European_
Union#Netherlands_Antilles_and_Aruba

or if you prefer

http://tinyurl.com/3agbnfm

"Netherlands Antilles and Aruba

The Netherlands Antilles and Aruba are autonomous parts of the Kingdom of the
Netherlands. They are excluded from the operation of EU law by reason of a
protocol attached to the Treaty of Rome, but they are counted as overseas
territories. The inhabitants of the islands are EU citizens owing to their
Dutch nationality, but most of them were not, until recently, entitled to vote
in European Parliamentary Elections. This has been recently ruled to be
contrary to EU law by the European Court of Justice as Dutch citizens resident
outside the EU, other than those resident in either the Netherlands Antilles
and Aruba, were entitled to vote in the Dutch elections to the European
Parliament.[11]

On 10 October 2010,[12] the Netherlands Antilles will be dissolved and replaced
by the two overseas autonomous countries of Cura‡ao and Sint Maarten on the one
hand, and the three Dutch municipalities of Bonaire, Saba and Sint Eustatius on
the other. The latter three will have to apply most of Dutch law and could then
opt to become an outermost region of the EU if they so wished. On 1 September
2009, Saba announced that it wished to withdraw from the Netherlands Antilles
immediately, rather than wait until October 2010.[13] However, according to
Dutch State Secretary Bijleveld for Kingdom Relations, it is at this moment not
legally possible for Saba to become separate from the Antilles.[14]"

Cheers, Bob

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