Cabinet’s Response to Information of the Council of State and Interdepartmental Policy Research (IBO) Kingdom Relations

At the request of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Kingdom Relations the Council of State (Raad van State)  and the taskforce IBO  Kingdom Relations have conducted research to reveal opportunities and limitations for the Caribbean Netherlands. The aim of this was to achieve a more effective governance for the Caribbean Netherlands.

The main objective is to improve the wellbeing of citizens within the Caribbean Netherlands with all Dutch citizens treated equal. In summary, the common thread in the two inquiries is as follows:

  • Improve the cooperation and coordination in The Hague and the Caribbean area and include current division of tasks in this.
  • Invest in the quality and viability of the local government and public administration.
  • Clear backlog step by step and cultivate an adequate, sustainable financing and suitable legislation and regulation.

The measures the Cabinet is taking based on the recommendations from the two reports are following two parallel lines. On one hand, recent, successful projects such as the Administrative Agreement Bonaire (Bestuursakkoord) and the Saba Package will be continued and  expanded. On the other hand, the Cabinet is committing to measures improving cooperation, enforcing quality and viability of the local government and public administration and on measures providing better service to the public. Finally, the Cabinet wants to ensure that the Caribbean Netherlands will be better imbedded in the European Netherlands’ systems and structures.

The taskforce IBO concludes its report with the message that the driving force behind the success is in cooperation, in which the Cabinet totally agrees. Herein it is essential that the Ministries in The Hague and the Public Entities collaborate for the same purposes.

Below the appendix to Cabinet’s Response to investigations of the Council of State and Interdepartmental Policy Research Kingdom Relations is shown. It enumerates the recommendations of both IBO and the Council of State and the Cabinet’s response to them.