The Ministry of General Affairs on the Binnenhof in The Hague where the meetings of the Kingdom Council of Ministers usually take place, prior to the Dutch Council of Ministers meeting. (Suzanne Koelega photo)
THE HAGUE--The Kingdom Council of Ministers met on Friday, but no concrete decisions were taken about the financial support for Aruba, Curaçao and St. Maarten. The Kingdom government meets every week during this crisis period, in case urgent decisions need to be taken.
The issue of financial support will be discussed again during the next meeting of the Kingdom Council of Ministers on Thursday, April 9, confirmed Aruba Minister Plenipotentiary Guillfred Besaril after Friday’s meeting.
“We will remain in dialogue on this matter with the different finance ministers within the Kingdom, and we hope that there will be concrete decisions next week,” said Besaril.
Curaçao and Aruba have requested 400 million euros in financial aid from the Netherlands. The funding is mainly to assist employers to keep their personnel on the payroll and to help dismissed employees.
Support for the three Dutch Caribbean countries gets much attention, the Ministry of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations BZK confirmed. It concerns liquidity support in the short term to help the local governments cope with the effects of the coronavirus crisis, and plans for financial stability in the long term.
Dutch Minister of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations Raymond Knops, who was unable to attend Friday’s meeting of the Kingdom Council of Ministers for important personal reasons, said after last week’s meeting that financial support for the countries would be in the form of loans, not grants. It was already decided during last week’s meeting that the balanced budget norm would become more relaxed under these exceptional circumstances.
According to Besaril, health care was the most important topic during Friday’s meeting. He said that the challenges regarding medical capacity and the support needs differ per island, but that there is extra attention for St. Maarten, which is still recuperating from Hurricane Irma some 2.5 years ago.
The assistance requests of the Dutch Caribbean countries regarding medical capacity support are discussed during the meetings of the so-called Ministerial Committee Crisis Management every Tuesday and Thursday under the leadership of Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte.
The Prime Ministers of Aruba, Curaçao and St. Maarten were informed of the results of Thursday’s Ministerial Committee Crisis Management meeting on that same day. It was during Thursday’s meeting that it was decided to send 12 intensive care beds with ventilators to St. Maarten, 12 to Curaçao, an equal amount to Aruba and six to Bonaire. St. Maarten should receive the equipment by mid-April.
A lot of effort is being made to arrange equipment, manpower and medication for the Caribbean parts of the Kingdom. Dutch State Secretary of Public Health, Welfare and Sport Paul Blokhuis is working on this, and has been in regular contact with the Public Health Ministers of the three Dutch Caribbean countries to coordinate.
