The Netherlands Establishes EU Platform for Curaçao and Other Caribbean Islands

The Netherlands is working on a joint EU platform for Curaçao, Aruba, Sint Maarten, Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, and Saba, together with the European Netherlands. The platform aims to make cooperation with Brussels more structured and to better support the islands in utilizing European subsidies and investment opportunities.

State Secretary Eric van der Burg of the Interior and Kingdom Relations wrote this to the House of Representatives on Monday. According to him, more cooperation and coordination within the Kingdom are needed to act more effectively in Brussels.

According to the Cabinet, a major problem is that while the islands do have access to European programs, in practice they are not always able to make full use of them. The implementation capacity of the Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs) is relatively limited, meaning that participation in, for example, the European Global Gateway Strategy is formally possible but often difficult to implement in practice. Furthermore, not all available European funds from the current budget period have been utilized yet.

The Netherlands therefore also wants to make more support available for the development of projects. A special legation has already existed for Bonaire, Sint-Eustatius, and Saba since 2023. Its activities are further focused on assisting in attracting European subsidies. The new EU platform aims to broaden cooperation to all six Caribbean countries and islands within the Kingdom with Overseas Countries and Territories (OCT) status.

At the same time, the Netherlands is trying to expand the islands' access to European funds. Under the original proposal for the new EU Global Europe program, the OCTs could only draw from the global funding pot. This represents approximately six percent of the available resources within that program.

Partly at the insistence of the Netherlands, the provisional position of the European Council includes the provision that Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs) must also be granted access to funds from other geographical funds for regional and cross-border projects. This is not yet final. Negotiations on the European multiannual budget for 2028-2034 will continue at least until the end of this year and possibly into 2027.