THE HAGUE - State Secretary Van Huffelen expressed in a letter to the House of Representatives considerably less optimistic about the cooperation with Curaçao, Aruba and Sint Maarten than she expressed earlier in the day during the press conference about the mutual arrangements concluded with the countries.
In front of the media, Van Huffelen lavishly showered compliments on the Prime Ministers Pisas, Wever-Croes and Jacobs standing next to her. Reducing supervision and applying less strict rules is possible, the State Secretary stated, because she is confident that the countries will comply with agreements made from now on. That is why she dares to repeal the COHO law that was created by her predecessor Raymond Knops because he was fed up with countries going back on agreements time and time again.
The press conference had not yet ended, and Van Huffelen had already sent a letter to the House of Representatives in which she complains that the countries are delaying reforms and withholding important information. “When I look back at the implementation of the Country Packages over the past two years, I see that such difficult decision-making is unfortunately sometimes ignored or postponed. I also see that not all relevant information about the reforms is being shared.”
Van Huffelen is particularly critical of the Pisas cabinet: “I am specifically concerned about the cautious attitude from Curaçao, as it increasingly emerges from the implementation reports of the past year. The cooperation is difficult on several fronts, as reflected, for example, in the reform of the online gambling sector, about which less and less information is being shared.”