A status referendum was held on the island of

Sint Eustatius Sint Eustatius (, ), also known locally as Statia (), is an island in the Caribbean. It is a special municipality (officially " public body") of the Netherlands. The island lies in the northern Leeward Islands portion of the West Indies, so ...

on 8 April 2005.

Background

After the 1994 referendum came out in favour of maintaining and restructuring the

Netherlands Antilles nl, In vrijheid verenigd"Unified by freedom" , national_anthem = , common_languages = Dutch English Papiamento , demonym = Netherlands Antillean , capital = Willemstad , year_start = 1954 , year_end = 2010 , date_start = 15 December , ...

, the government of the Netherlands Antilles tried to restructure the

and attempted to forge closer ties between the islands, as is exemplified by the adoption of an anthem of the Netherlands Antilles in 2000. A new referendum on Sint Maarten, which was in favour of a separate status for Sint Maarten as a country within the

Kingdom of the Netherlands , national_anthem = ) , image_map = Kingdom of the Netherlands (orthographic projection).svg , map_width = 250px , image_map2 = File:KonDerNed-10-10-10.png , map_caption2 = Map of the four constituent countries shown to scale , capital = ...

, sparked a new series of referendums across the Netherlands Antilles, however. Sint Eustatius was the only island to again vote for retaining the Netherlands Antilles. However, since none of the other islands chose to remain part of the Netherlands Antilles, the Sint Eustatius island council opted for direct ties with the Netherlands.

Background

Result

See also