THE HAGUE – While Curaçao has completed its government improvement plans and exited a longstanding Kingdom supervision arrangement, Sint Maarten will remain subject to monitoring under a revised system that reduces reporting requirements and gives local authorities more time to prepare progress reports.
The changes are contained in a Royal Decree dated July 9, 2026, which amends the Cooperation Arrangement for Safeguarding Plans of Action for Government Tasks in Curaçao and Sint Maarten.
Under the revised arrangement, progress reports and implementation reports will be prepared every six months instead of every three months.
The adjustment follows consultations between the governments of the Netherlands and Sint Maarten, which concluded that the previous reporting frequency created an excessive administrative burden.
According to the explanatory memorandum, experience with the arrangement demonstrated that quarterly reporting required considerable administrative work, particularly given Sint Maarten's limited personnel capacity.
Although the new reports are expected to contain more information because they cover longer periods, the governments believe that reducing the frequency will make the monitoring process more manageable.
The decree also extends the deadlines associated with preparing and responding to reports.
The period available to prepare implementation reports increases from two weeks to four weeks.
Similarly, the time allowed to respond to progress reports is extended from two weeks to four weeks.
These changes are intended to provide the institutions involved with more time to compile information, evaluate progress, and address findings.
The arrangement dates back to October 10, 2010, when Sint Maarten and Curaçao became autonomous countries within the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
At that time, both countries assumed responsibility for government functions previously administered by the Netherlands Antilles.
Because some of these responsibilities could not immediately be performed at the required standard, improvement plans were established under a joint cooperation framework.
The plans were monitored to ensure that the countries gradually developed the administrative capacity needed to perform their responsibilities independently.
Curaçao has now completed all its plans and has been removed from the arrangement.
Sint Maarten, however, still has outstanding plans requiring continued monitoring.
The explanatory memorandum identifies the Minister of Justice of Sint Maarten as the minister responsible for the remaining improvement plans.
To strengthen the connection between monitoring and implementation, the decree changes the composition of the ministerial consultation body.
Previously, consultations involved the Prime Minister of Sint Maarten and the Dutch Minister of the Interior and Kingdom Relations.
Under the amended arrangement, the Sint Maarten minister directly responsible for the government function being monitored will also participate.
In practice, this means the Minister of Justice will join the consultations concerning the remaining plans.
The measure is intended to ensure that the minister responsible for implementation participates directly in discussions about progress and outstanding requirements.
The decree also changes the period for which the cooperation arrangement may be extended.
Instead of requiring renewal every two years, the arrangement may now be extended for three-year periods.
According to the Dutch government, this adjustment is intended to reduce the administrative work associated with repeated extensions.
However, the arrangement is not intended to continue indefinitely.
A new provision requires its withdrawal by Royal Decree once all remaining improvement plans have been completed.
The revised framework therefore combines continued monitoring with measures intended to reduce administrative demands on Sint Maarten's government.
The changes do not mean that the remaining reforms have been completed or that supervision has ended.
Rather, they establish a modified process for monitoring the outstanding responsibilities until the agreed improvements are finalized.
For Sint Maarten, the central challenge remains completing the remaining government improvement plans while maintaining sufficient administrative capacity to implement and document progress.