19 million to stabilize cliff on St. Eustatius
The cabinet intends to assign a maximum of €19 million to the Public Entity of St. Eustatius so that the cliff on the harbor side of the island can be stabilized. This intention was expressed in the Spring Memorandum (Voorjaarsnota) , which was recently presented to the House of Representatives, and still needs to be ratified by the House of Representatives during the discussion of the Spring Memorandum.
The Central Government had already financially assisted the Public Entity when reinforcing the cliff under Fort Oranje. However, further research showed that measures were needed on a much larger part of the cliff on the harbor side of St. Eustatius.
The Public Entity is responsible for the condition and maintenance of the cliff but, due to the scale of the project, also from a financial perspective, officially requested help from the Central Government at the start of this year. The Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations is prepared to support St. Eustatius in this matter. Decisions about such requests are always made around the Spring memorandum.
To ensure that this and previously implemented measures have a long-term effect, additional measures are needed to make the project more sustainable. This is particularly about removing free-roaming cattle, and compiling a maintenance plan. This is needed to prevent future problems. State secretary for Kingdom relations and Digitalization, Alexandra van Huffelen has therefore informed the Executive Council of St. Eustatius by letter that she will make agreements about these measures before the funds are finally granted.