Antigua and Barbuda has offered to close its citizenship-by-investment programme by the end of 2030 if the European Union helps pay for the transition, IMI Daily reported on 31 October, citing Antigua News Room. Prime Minister Gaston Browne made the proposal in a letter dated 30 October to Magnus Brunner, the EU Commissioner for Internal Affairs and Migration. The date is two and a half years later than the 1 June 2028 closure the European Commission asked for in a letter of 25 June.
According to the report, the government would study the financial, economic, social and legal effects of closing the programme and send its findings to the Commission by March 2027. Browne asks for EU technical help with that study, financial support to offset lost revenue, investment and jobs, and a dedicated funding line for countries winding down citizenship programmes in the EU's 2028–2034 budget; no such line exists today. In return he offers binding safeguards and EU monitoring during the transition.
Browne bases the case for 2030 on IMF findings that programme inflows helped produce a primary surplus of nearly 5 per cent of GDP in 2025, and on public debt falling to 68 per cent of GDP from 101 per cent in 2020. He also points to developers whose obligations depend on continued investment and to banks that have lent against expected programme receipts. According to his account of talks in Brussels, without an agreement the Commission could announce a suspension of the Schengen visa waiver in January 2027, taking effect around March or April.
The Commission's deadline for a formal answer is 12 November and still stands, IMI Daily writes, and the Commission has not responded publicly to the offer. The same report says Dominica stated on 28 October that it seeks a practical agreement with the EU and will set out its position by 12 November. Browne puts the programme's receipts since 2013 at more than EC$1.4 billion, about US$518 million.
What it means
The 2030 date is a proposal, not an agreed timetable: the Commission has not accepted it, and each Eastern Caribbean government decides on its own visa waiver. The next fixed date is 12 November, the deadline for Antigua and Barbuda's formal answer and the date by which Dominica has said it will state its position.
Was this useful?