THE HAGUE - However low-policy the 2020 budget for Kingdom Relations and the BES Fund may be, the Second Chamber Committee for Kingdom Relations has submitted no fewer than 93 questions about it. It is up to Undersecretary Raymond Knops to answer this in the course of next week, because in the following week the Chamber will debate the budget in a plenary session.
The questions relate, among other things, to liquidity support to Curaçao, Aruba and Sint Maarten, the Caribbean Agency for Reform and Development (COHO), the future of the Isla refinery and reconstruction after Hurricane Irma.
Regarding Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba, the questions mainly concern poverty. The committee wants to know whether the social assistance benefit can be increased to 70% of the minimum wage as in the European Netherlands.