The Hague Extends the Kingdom Reform Packages by Two Years

The Dutch government will keep the country packages running two years longer, conceding that the reforms it asked of Curaçao, Aruba and St. Maarten need more time than the original deadline allowed.

The country packages, the reform programs the Netherlands agreed with Curaçao, Aruba and St. Maarten in 2020 in exchange for pandemic-era financing, will be extended by two years, the Dutch government confirmed in its 2027 Budget Memorandum presented on Budget Day. The packages had been set to run only until March of next year.

An independent committee this year found that the packages had produced real reform in the three countries, but concluded that structural change requires more time, and pointed to limited implementation capacity and delays in executing the agreed initiatives. The extension, part of the Mutual Arrangement for Cooperation on Reforms agreed in 2020, keeps the conditions, and the oversight, in place for longer.

For St. Maarten, Curaçao and Aruba, the packages are the central mechanism of the current relationship with The Hague: a list of reforms to public finances, the civil service, education, health and the rule of law, tied to Dutch support. Two more years is more room to deliver. It is also two more years of conditions set in a European capital, which is the part the region feels most.