THE HAGUE – This week, preparatory official discussions will start about the conditions under which the corona loans to Curaçao, Aruba and Sint Maarten, which expire on October 10, will be extended.
The Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations confirms that these are bilateral talks and that the final negotiation results may therefore differ per country. All countries are aiming for at least partial cancellation and for the remainder a long term at a low interest rate.
Curaçao is seizing the talks to get the Netherlands to refinance the entire national debt (more than 4 billion guilders) to reduce the interest burden on all outstanding loans. Minister of Finance Javier Silvania invokes an “agreement” that he would have made with State Secretary Van Huffelen. The ministry declined to comment on whether such an agreement exists.
The conversations with Aruba become exciting. The Ministry of Kingdom Relations confirms that there is still no agreement on the Aruba Financial Supervision Kingdom Act (RAft). Without this, the supervision by the Aruba Financial Supervision Board will come to an end. Although the Wever-Croes cabinet has so far always won the negotiations with The Hague, it seems inconceivable that a deal on the corona loan is possible without an agreement on the RAft.
In the Dutch Lower House, votes will be cast on the prospect that a substantial part of the corona loans can be waived step by step as the reforms laid down in the country packages are implemented. From reports from the financial supervision committee Cft it can be concluded that the reforms are progressing slowly.
