Sint Maarten still receives Dutch corona support

Sint Maarten will still receive around 19 million euros in corona support from the Dutch government. This is apparent from a letter that outgoing State Secretary Raymond Knops (Internal Affairs, CDA) sent to the House of Representatives on Thursday afternoon.

In May, Knops refused to transfer the millions, because, according to him, there were administrative problems at the local airport. For example, a director would not have been dismissed in accordance with the correct procedures and for no apparent reason, and the appointment of three supervisory directors would not have taken place according to the rules. Solving these problems was made a condition for granting the aid.

‘Neocolonial’
The Prime Minister of Sint Maarten Silveria Jacobs found Knops’ decision to refuse the corona support for this reason “inappropriate” , she told ANP news agency, partly because the functioning of the airport board would never have been an issue in the deal. . “On the one hand, the Netherlands claims that it considers the well-being of the population of Sint Maarten important,” says Jacobs. “But on the other hand, it is all the time trying to find means to move the goalposts.”

Knops, in turn, has always referred to the airport management as a precondition. Earlier this year, Knops withdrew the amount of aid, because Jacobs called it “neo-colonial” that Sint Maarten had to reform in order to qualify for the aid .

Knops now believes that the island “has acted decisively enough to structurally repair the problems at the airport”. Discussions about the functioning of the airport were held in the presence of the Royal Schiphol Group (RSG). From the letter from Knops it appears that the support is desperately needed: Sint Maarten is financially in trouble and would no longer be able to pay the civil servants’ salaries without support at the end of June.