Daily Herald, Philipsburg, August 9, 2006...St. Maarten is willing to explore the option of introducing a joint Central Bank and one common currency for the countries Curaçao and St. Maarten in the ongoing constitutional reform talks.

Constitutional Affairs Commissioner Sarah Wescot-Williams informed the Curaçao Executive Council of St. Maarten’s position in a letter to her Curaçao counterpart Zita Jesus-Leito dated August 4. The letter was a response to a Curaçao technical committee report on the pros and cons of several options for a joint Central Bank for the new countries in the Kingdom.

In her letter Wescot-Williams listed several conditions for agreeing to introduce a joint monetary union. First and foremost, the management structure of the joint Central Bank will have to reflect the changed status of St. Maarten within the Kingdom. At the same time a branch of the Central Bank will have to be established in St. Maarten.

Concerning the harmonisation of policy, as proposed by the Curaçao Committee, St. Maarten believes that harmonisation should cover only common standards for debts and budgets, and currency traffic between Curaçao and St. Maarten.

All other aspects of economic and fiscal harmonisation should be optional and not a must, Wescot-Williams said. She stressed that the Netherlands Antilles has been a monetary union, but that the islands don’t have harmonised economic policies on, for instance, taxes. The Curaçao committee proposed a total harmonisation.

The Curaçao Permanent Committee for Constitutional Affairs (PCCA) received a copy of the letter yesterday and will discuss it tomorrow, Thursday, August 10.

The PCCA will meet on the same day with the Central Government constitutional affairs steering group consisting of Prime Minister Emily de Jongh-Elhage, Finance Minister Ersilia de Lannooy and Constitutional Affairs Minister Roland Duncan to discuss issues concerning the Central Government’s role in the constitutional reform process. These include the status of civil servants and deliberations that took place between De Lannooy and Dutch Finance Minister Gerrit Zalm.

Source: Daily Herald