User talk:Jeroen N
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--Sjoerd de Bruin (talk) 15:00, 21 May 2014 (UTC)
(Kingdom of) the Netherlands[edit]
Hi! Regarding these Netherlands (plural) versus Benelux, did you see my comment in Talk:Q29999? Thanks :-) Fred Johansen (talk) 08:54, 14 May 2015 (UTC)
- This is, strictly speaking, not correct. The Netherlands is not a sovereign state, but a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, which is a sovereign state. As such, and as follows from the Charters and the Constitution, only the Kingdom is capable of signing treaties (for itself and on behalf of the constituent countries). The Charter contains a provision (art. 28) allowing Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten to become members of international organizations if they so wish, but the Kingdom needs to sign the relevant treaties on their behalf. A similar provision for the Netherlands does not exist. Instead, treaties often contain provisions limiting the scope to the territory of the Netherlands. This is the case for the European Union and also for the Benelux. From a constitutional perspective, the Kingdom is a party to the treaty and a member of the organization. This is confirmed by the fact that foreigns affairs is an exclusive competence of the Kingdom. So the Kingdom is a member of the Benelux, but its effect is limited to the territory of the Netherlands, which explains why the website of the Benelux Union speaks of "Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg". I wouldn't be surprised if even the governments of the respective countries don't realize the difference. Woodcutterty (talk) 12:11, 14 May 2015 (UTC)
- Thanks for the insight, that's very interesting! I confess I was merely acting on that Q55 already has the member-of relation (P463) to Benelux. (In fact, it has fifty-six P463 if I'm counting them right, while the Kingdom of the Netherlands at the moment only has four P463.) Fred Johansen (talk) 22:04, 14 May 2015 (UTC)