The State Secretary in charge of Kingdom Relations, Eric van der Burg, gave a clear explanation of the goal behind the Kingdom Act on Financial Supervision (HOFA), emphasizing that this designation has nothing to do with partisan politics. Van der Burg stressed that the sole purpose of the law is to give Aruba the same conditions and rules that Curaçao and Sint Maarten already have formalized within the Kingdom.
During his statements, the Dutch official chose to maintain a stance of absolute political neutrality regarding Aruba’s electoral landscape. Van der Burg emphasized that he does not have an opinion on which political parties are in power in the country. “I remain neutral and I respect the decision of the Aruban voter,” the State Secretary declared. He explained that his main task is to negotiate and work with whichever government is in office at that moment, regardless of their political color.
A historical difference since 1986
Delving into the historical context, Van der Burg recalled that Aruba has a different constitutional situation compared to Curaçao and Sint Maarten, due to achieving its Status Aparte 40 years ago. Aruba acquired its status as an autonomous country within the Kingdom first, long before the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles on October 10, 2010 (10-10-10).
For this reason, when new financial arrangements were introduced for Curaçao and Sint Maarten in 2010, Aruba was not part of the same framework at that time. The lack of a similar arrangement in recent years has created a constitutional imbalance in structural financial supervision.
“Siblings” in the Kingdom
The current Kingdom Act, known as HOFA, was negotiated directly by Aruba’s current Plenipotentiary Minister in the Netherlands. According to Van der Burg, the main goal of this legislative effort is to put Aruba in a position of legal and financial equality with the others.
The official illustrated this relationship by describing Aruba, Curaçao, and Sint Maarten as “siblings” (sisters) within the Kingdom, which implies that they should be treated in the same balanced manner. In short, according to Van der Burg, the law is not introduced to impose unilateral measures, but to ensure that Aruba enjoys the same conditions and rules that its sibling countries have had stipulated since 2010.
