Aruba is close by and Curaçao has taken good steps to qualify for a financial emergency package from the cabinet. Sint Maarten has once again shown that it does not meet the conditions set by the Netherlands. State Secretary Raymond Knops (the Interior and Kingdom Relations) wrote this in a Friday Letter to Parliament after the Council of Ministers.
The cabinet concludes that Aruba largely meets the conditions, with the exception of the condition that the incomes of top officials within the (semi) public sector do not exceed 130 percent of the salary of the Aruban prime minister. The cabinet has granted Aruba a postponement until October 1 to do something about the level of these top incomes.
According to Knops, Curaçao has taken “significant steps” to meet the agreed conditions, but the demanded salary discount of 12.5 percent for civil servants and the reform of the pension system are not yet in order, according to the cabinet. The island will have until September 1 to do something about this.
Sint Maarten is currently in the waiting room for emergency support. Because the island government does not yet meet the set conditions at all, the cabinet has temporarily suspended talks with the island about a possible next emergency support package.
Islands badly hit by corona crisis
The financial emergency package should support the islands, which are in crisis after they have been hit hard by the corona virus. The virus has completely halted the tourism sector, an important source of income for Curaçao, Aruba and St. Maarten.
However, the three islands do not agree with all the conditions imposed by the Netherlands on the financial emergency package.
The main objections focus on the demand from the Netherlands for the establishment of a Dutch institute to monitor the expenditure from the emergency package. The islands feel that this is giving up too much autonomy.
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