Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs discussing her government’s request for an exemption from the balanced budget rule again with recently-appointed Dutch State Secretary of Kingdom Relations Alexandra van Huffelen (see related story) is most welcome. The latter’s predecessor Raymond Knops had tied it to the Caribbean Body for Reform and Development COHO last month and added a related Note of Amendment that neither Curaçao, Aruba nor St. Maarten could accept.
The next Kingdom Council of Ministers RMR meeting takes place in The Hague this Friday and approval of the petition based on a positive advice from the Committee for Financial Supervision CFT is of the utmost importance so that the 2022 budget already passed by Parliament can go into effect. Moreover, continued coronavirus-related liquidity support from the Netherlands that will be required this year depends on it too, just like restructuring measures in the so-called “country package” agreed on as condition for such.
The COHO that is to supervise their execution must still be ratified by the respective legislatures, but in the meantime a Temporary Work Organisation (TWO) has been making the necessary preparations for implementation. The relevant Kingdom Consensus Law is likely to get majority backing in all four countries once the budget controversy has been cleared up.
Finance Minister Ardwell Irion reporting in today’s edition the start of negotiations on refinancing large debts created by these soft loans needed not just due to COVID-19, but since the devastating hurricanes of September 2017, is also good news. It’s high time to move on.
