THE HAGUE - The pressure has been further increased on the governments of Curaçao and Sint Maarten to cooperate with the Netherlands in a joint response to the Council of State's criticism of the Kingdom Act on the Caribbean Organization for Reforms and Development (COHO).
Undersecretary for Kingdom Relations Raymond Knops informs the Second Chamber of the Dutch Parliament that this is a condition for eligibility for the next (the 7th) tranche of liquidity support. The newly appointed Pisas cabinet has previously indicated that it will first reopen negotiations on the COHO law and Sint Maarten is also not enthusiastic about continuing on the path taken by Knops.
In his letter to the Chamber, the undersecretary also confirms that Curaçao and Sint Maarten have not yet met the conditions of the 6th tranche and that the payment of the liquidity support for the 3rd quarter is therefore withdrawn.
Curaçao urgently needs 168 million guilders, Sint Maarten 48 million. “Without these loans, countries are likely to be unable to meet their obligations, such as salary payments, social security expenses and interest obligations on outstanding loans, during the course of next month,” Knops writes.
The need is also high in Aruba. That country has met all the conditions and therefore the payment of 181 million will be transferred urgently - in anticipation of the approval of the Second Chamber.