THE HAGUE – The three Caribbean countries of the Kingdom are still confident that they will be able to conclude an agreement with the Netherlands on a new corona loan. Curaçao, Aruba and Sint Maarten announced this on Sunday. The loans are taken out to help the islands with the major financial consequences of the corona crisis.
On Monday, July 6, Undersecretary Raymond Knops of Kingdom Relations sent a list of conditions for new corona loans. All three islands stated that they did not agree to this because some conditions would run counter to their autonomy. The arrival of the three prime ministers to the Kingdom Council of Ministers in The Hague last Friday did not lead to an agreement. Knops has indicated that he wants to consult with the various islands in the near future. The islands also want to consult, but all three set different accents.
Sint Maarten emphasized on Sunday “never to agree with the proposal from the Netherlands to set up an entity that makes decisions from the Netherlands about the finances of Curaçao, Aruba and Sint Maarten.” Aruba already seemed close to an agreement with the Netherlands last Friday and says it wants to talk further in the coming days because the island will get into serious financial difficulties without an agreement. Curaçao has been combative in recent days and said “never to give up autonomy in exchange for a bag of money.” Prime Minister Eugene Rhuggenaath, however, then indicated that he wanted to continue consultations “in order to reach an agreement in the interest of the people.”
The Netherlands has already provided aid to the countries but is imposing a series of conditions on the third aid package for the next three months which the three islands are not happy about. For example, the islands must implement reforms, something that the Netherlands has been pushing for a long time. The idea is that the islands’ economy will become less vulnerable and that they will be better able to deal with setbacks in the future. The islands consider the Dutch requirements unreasonable and Knops’ requirement to agree within four days does not fit in with the way in which the countries in the Kingdom interact with each other. In any case, they want more time to implement any reforms. The pain for the islands is the establishment of an institution that will supervise the budget.
The bishop of Willemstad, Luis Secco, has sent a letter to Prime Minister Mark Rutte. The bishop asks Rutte for a personal intervention in the stalemate that arose after the conditions were announced last Monday which the Netherlands wants to impose on new corona loans for Curaçao, Aruba and Sint Maarten. The bishop hopes that Rutte can help to take a more nuanced path to find a solution. Secco says that his letter is separate from any political sphere, but that he stands up for the citizens of Curaçao, Aruba and Sint Maarten who are suffering from the bad financial situation because of the corona crisis.
