Antigua and Barbuda has asked the European Union for a longer transition to end its Citizenship by Investment Programme as the government seeks to preserve visa-free travel to Europe while managing the loss of a major revenue source, Prime Minister Gaston Browne said Saturday.
Speaking on the Browne and Browne Show, Browne said the government had written to European authorities expressing willingness to phase out the programme but requesting an additional three and a half years.
“We told them that we are ready to suspend, but we asked them to give us an additional three and a half years,” he said. “We’re waiting to hear from them.”
The request follows a June 25 letter from European Commissioner Magnus Brunner asking Antigua and Barbuda to close the programme by June 1, 2028. The government said similar correspondence went to Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, and St. Lucia.
At stake is visa-free access to Europe’s Schengen area. According to the government’s account of the EU’s revised visa suspension framework, operating an investor citizenship programme can itself provide grounds for suspending that access, regardless of the programme’s safeguards.
The CIP allows qualifying foreign applicants to obtain citizenship through approved investments or financial contributions. Its potential closure therefore carries consequences for government revenue and investment, alongside the travel privileges of Antigua and Barbuda passport holders.
In an Oct. 30 letter to Brunner, Browne proposed a transition lasting until the end of 2030, together with an assessment of the economic consequences and European financial assistance, according to the Caribbean Media Corporation.
His latest reference to three and a half years did not explain how that period relates to the December 2030 date previously proposed.
Browne also referred Saturday to an agreement to suspend the programme from Nov. 12 while describing the actual process as a gradual phaseout.
He had previously explained that Nov. 12 was the deadline to communicate the government’s position to the EU, rather than an immediate shutdown date. The distinction separates a commitment to close the programme from the date on which it would cease operating.
Saturday’s remarks did not specify a cutoff for new applications or explain how pending applications would be handled. Browne said the government was still awaiting the EU’s response.
The negotiations mark a shift from the government’s position in July, when it said the programme could not be abandoned without credible replacement revenue. At the time, it identified hospitals, schools, infrastructure and disaster recovery among the areas supported by CIP funds.
The October proposal sought an assessment of the fiscal, financial, economic, social and legal consequences of closure, to be shared with the European Commission by the end of the first quarter of 2027. It also requested budget and development assistance linked to the revenue, investment and employment that would be lost.
Browne said Saturday that the government had also asked the EU to support regional renewable energy development as part of discussions about the impact of ending citizenship programmes.
He linked the proposed phaseout separately to efforts to resolve U.S. visa restrictions, saying the government intended to notify Washington formally because American authorities had cited the CIP among their concerns.
He did not announce an agreed closure date or confirmation that either the EU or the United States had accepted the government’s proposals.
This article was originally published by Antigua News Room. Read the original article here: Antigua and Barbuda seeks longer CIP phaseout as EU presses for closure to preserve visa-free travel.