TEXEL – Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba and the five Dutch Wadden Islands continued their cooperation at the annual meeting of the E8, the network of eight islands, on Texel on October 1 and 2. The islands want to give their joint voice in The Hague more weight, building on the declaration of intent signed on Vlieland in June 2025.
Statia Island Governor Alida Francis said the islands see three key themes: equal investment, strengthening implementation capacity and making the islands climate-resilient.
Besides Bonaire, Statia and Saba, the meeting brought together Texel, Vlieland, Terschelling, Ameland and Schiermonnikoog. Representatives of the provinces of North Holland and Friesland, the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations (BZK), the Association of Netherlands Municipalities (VNG) and members of the Dutch Parliament also participated.
Discussions focused on challenges the islands share despite the considerable geographical differences between them, including freshwater availability and water safety, administrative integrity and resilience, and relations with other levels of government. The programme also included visits on Texel focusing on freshwater storage and coastal management.
The meeting follows the E8 declaration of intent signed on Vlieland in June 2025. Under that agreement, the five Wadden Islands and the three Caribbean Netherlands islands agreed to work more closely on advocacy, knowledge-sharing and issues such as liveability, accessibility and public services.
Structural Island Coalition
Discussions are now underway to develop the E8 network further into a more structural “island coalition”, potentially including a coordinated lobbying strategy towards the Dutch government and Parliament, as BES-Reporter reported in September.
