The Community of Saint-Martin organized a Round Table last Friday on the institutional question and the evolution of the Organic Law, 20 years after the 2003 referendum.
The meeting-debate moderated by Alex Richards was held in the presence of Louis Mussington, president of the COM, Alain Richardson, 1st VP, Angèle Dormoy, president CCISM, Ida Zin Ka Peu, president CESC, Jean Arnell, entrepreneur, and Maitre Sandrine Jabouley Delahaye, lawyer. The last minute organization is part of Emmanuel Macron's invitation to the presidents of overseas communities to gather next Friday at the Élysée and the continuation of the work initiated by the Appeal of Fort- de-France which calls for a review of the system that governs them and the regulation of overseas territories seeking more freedoms. The live-broadcast discussions focused on three questions: The State, eternal guardianship or constructive partner? Cooperation and regional integration: what are the challenges and what are the prospects with our regional partners? What form of local governance, what means? Addressing the organic law of February 21, 2007, Maître Jabouley immediately underlined an important point: “By delving into the basic texts, I learned that we have possibilities at the level of the territorial council to appropriate certain subjects, have we exploited all the possibilities offered by this text? ". For Alain Richardson, Saint-Martin took a long time to prove its ability to succeed: “The revenue generated by Saint-Martin has increased fivefold, we have proven our persistence by assuming our responsibilities and our autonomy, we have proven ourselves” . The same goes for Louis Mussington: “in 2001/2002, as part of the reflection before the popular consultation, I informed Basse-Terre that the legal framework of the municipality was not suitable for Saint-Martin and that it was necessary to go towards statutory development, the current observation is that we were right. I also insist on the urgent need to modify the organic law, we are determined to have new skills because we have proven that we manage, this legislative provision is essential.
Jean Arnell calls for economic diversity for better prosperity, advocating proactivity, as in Barbuda. Another obstacle in addition to regulations, the standards set at the national level which are not adapted to the reality of the territory according to Alain Richardson "and we must have the right to experiment, to take the ball to prove our real integration in our basin. This is the whole point of the debate and the Fort-de-France Appeal. The speakers were all unanimous on the fact that it would be selfish to believe that the COM no longer needs the State but “we must develop autonomy adapted to our reality”. Louis Mussington will be received with the presidents of the overseas communities this Friday by the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron in order to present his action plan towards autonomy. _VX
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