Summary - The Caribbean Netherlands, five years after the transition

Original title: Vijf jaar Caribisch Nederland

On 10 October 2010 the islands of Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba, under the flag of the Caribbean Netherlands, acquired the status of new Dutch public bodies, as part of the Netherlands. This transition marked the end of the Netherlands Antilles as an administrative entity. Many agreements were made between European and Caribbean administrators in order to shape the new administrative situation. One of those agreements was that the impact of the new constitutional order would be evaluated after five years. An evaluation committee was set up for this. In part on the advice of the Dutch Council of State, the committee commissioned three studies, to investigate the consequences for legislation, public administration and the population, respectively.

This report focuses on the consequences for the population: what impact has the new constitutional order had on the daily lives of island residents? What role do public provisions play in this? And have the agreements made on the level of facilities to be achieved been met? The study looked particularly at the economic situation, physical infrastructure, education, health care, social security and public safety facilities on the islands. To gain a good insight into developments in relation to the agreements made, a large number of interviews were held with administrators, civil servants, professionals, members of the business community and citizens. An opinion survey was also conducted among island residents in order to obtain a picture of their experiences of the last five years.