PHILIPSBURG--Eight additional organic laws and the establishing of the statues for the joint Central Bank of St. Maarten and Curaçao will be up for debate when the Island Council meets at 9:00am today.

The meeting follows Tuesday's Central Committee meeting, which continued on Wednesday, on these issues.

Organic laws up for debate are the ordinances governing the rights of civil servants; establishing the organisation for Country St. Maarten; establishing the rights of personnel of the secretariat of parliament; the ombudsman; the security service of Country St. Maarten; the protection of personal information; the ordinance on public notices and promulgation of laws, and the ordinance regulating a state of emergency.

Some 17 organic laws have already been established. The holding of the final Round Table Conference (RTC) in The Hague on September 9 hinges on, among other things, the passing of these laws, Dutch caretaker Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende stressed during a meeting with the Executive Council at The Westin St. Maarten Dawn Beach Resort and Spa on Sunday.

Leader of Government Commissioner William Marlin on Tuesday stressed the importance of the laws being finalised.

He told reporters Tuesday that St. Maarten was working against time to meet a "serious deadline" to achieve its new status. "We have a serious deadline to meet and if we don't meet that deadline, then there is no RTC."

Marlin said the laws need to be handled by this Friday so that preparations can proceed for the final RTC.

In a press release on Wednesday, Democratic Party (DP) leader Sarah Wescot-Williams was again critical of the process to approve the laws.

She said: "It now appears certain that matters to be regulated by ordinance (law), because they are classified as organic laws, will be passed by a majority in the Island Council of St. Maarten, mostly without any debate or deliberation."

She said no amount of time pressure should relegate the passing of laws to "routine" matters.

"In other words, it cannot be expected that the faction of the Democratic Party, as eager as we are to cooperate with reaching the finish line of 10-10-10, will rubberstamp matters such as the joint Central Bank and joint currency with Curaçao. The urgency that the government of St. Maarten attempts to convey, in our opinion, is nothing more than a smoke screen to cover up other actions by the government that continue unabated," she said in the release.