Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Curacao Rejects Final Agreement for Their New Status

The Island Council of Curacao has rejected the final agreement about the future of its relationship with The Netherlands. The final agreement was agreed upon November 2nd by The Netherlands, the Dutch Antilles, Curacao, and St. Maarten, and it was then sent to the island councils for ratification.

In the agreement it is stated that The Netherlands will pay 80% of the loans (approximately 2.4 billion Euro or USD $3.1 billion). Each single island of the Dutch Antilles will be able to start a new relationship with The Netherlands.

The islands of Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba have already ratified their agreement with The Netherlands to become a special town of Holland, while St. Maarten and Curacao want “status aparte”, the same as Aruba currently has. With the rejection of this agreement by the Island Council of Curacao, these reforms for Curacao and St. Martin may be delayed.

The majority of the Curacao political parties (13 representatives) want to renegotiate with The Netherlands about an agreement in which the payment captioned above will stay the same, but what will give more autonomy to the island. Only the PAR and PNP (7 representatives) are defending the agreement and say it’s a “unique chance.” (Source:  Nu NL Nieuws)