Curaçao PCCA decides on
monetary union proposals
PHILIPSBURG--Curaçao and St. Maarten are close to reaching an agreement on a monetary union that will go into effect after they obtain their autonomous status. “We are very close to a final agreement. The talks went very well,” said Curaçao Island Council Members Oscar Castillo and Cesar Prince, who were present at the meeting. They said agreement had been reached on 80 per cent of all the proposals.
A technical committee from St. Maarten and Curaçao met yesterday to discuss a possible monetary union. Both Prince and Castillo were very optimistic. “The talks went well. I believe we are very close to reaching an agreement,” Prince said. Castillo stated that the discussions had been intense, but that a lot of progress had been made.
The Curaçao Permanent Committee for Constitutional Affairs (PCCA) will meet today to discuss the proposals that were made in yesterday’s technical meeting.
“It’s up to the PCCA to agree to the proposals,” Prince said.
The main topics of discussion on which proposals were made were the instruments for the Central Bank to control whether the islands maintain their balanced budgets, the organisation and management of the Central Bank, and having a monetary union, but no economic union with a harmonised tax system.
After the constitutional reform process is completed the islands will not be permitted to build up new debts. That has been one of the conditions the Dutch Government has set for giving the islands debt relief.
Regarding the management structure of a joint Central Bank, Curaçao has proposed that the management variance has to be 3:1 based on the number of people living on each of the islands. Not having an economic union is not considered a problem, as there already is a monetary union within the Netherlands Antilles, but no economic union among the islands.
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