Saint Lucia’s Prime Minister Philip J. Pierre and Antigua and Barbuda’s Prime Minister Gaston Browne met European Union (EU) Commissioner Magnus Brunner in New York on September 24. Their talks centered on the future of citizenship by investment (CBI) in the Eastern Caribbean, the Saint Lucia government said.
Brunner is the European Commissioner for Internal Affairs and Migration. They met at the EU Mission to the United Nations during the 81st UN General Assembly.
Timothy Antoine, Governor of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank, and Didacus Jules, Director General of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), also attended. Other EU officials joined them.
According to the statement, the two prime ministers repeated that CBI programs are “an important source of development financing for the OECS countries that operate them.” They also stressed “the need for continued dialogue with the EU on a transition path forward that takes account of EU security concerns and the economic realities of the region.”
Saint Lucia’s statement did not announce an agreement or a change to the European Commission’s June 2028 deadline for phasing out the programs.
Ahead of the talks, Browne’s government said he would join an OECS meeting with the EU on Wednesday. According to the Antigua Observer, which cited a government release, the talks were expected to focus on the CBI programs of participating OECS member states.
Browne listed “the international treatment of our economic programmes” among the issues on his agenda in New York, the Observer added.
Antigua’s ABS TV Radio later reported that Browne joined OECS leaders on Wednesday for discussions with an EU delegation. Its report said the meeting covered “a broad range of matters of importance to the sub-region” and made no mention of CBI.
Brunner signed the Commission’s letter of June 25, 2026, which asked Antigua and Barbuda to phase out its CBI program by June 1, 2028, according to Antigua’s government. The same statement said Dominica, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and Saint Lucia had received similar letters, as IMI reported at the time.
Saint Lucia’s September 24 statement refers to “the European Commission’s request that Eastern Caribbean countries operating such programmes phase them out by June 2028.”
The letter offers a 24-month transition period, Antigua’s government said, and proposes interim measures to be in place no later than September 2026. These include the full exclusion of people subject to EU restrictive measures and reinforced vetting procedures for all nationalities.
The Commission based its request on the EU’s revised visa suspension mechanism. It entered into force on December 30, 2025.
Regulation (EU) 2025/2441 made an “investor citizenship scheme” in a visa-exempt country one of the grounds for suspending visa-free travel to the EU. The rule covers a country that grants citizenship “in exchange for pre-determined payments or investments, without that person having any genuine link to that third country.”
At a July 10 summit in Roseau, Dominica, the heads of government of the five Eastern Caribbean states with CBI programs agreed to undertake “a high-level mission to Brussels.” On July 13, Saint Lucia’s Deputy Prime Minister Ernest Hilaire said his country had already done what Brussels asked, and he pointed to “a change in the mood of the Commission.”
On September 20, Antigua and Barbuda’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Chet Greene, became chair of the OECS council of foreign ministers, the OECS said. Greene’s proposed objectives for the council include “securing fair treatment for Citizenship by Investment and financial services programmes.”
According to Antigua’s government, the EU will take account of Antigua and Barbuda’s response in its visa suspension mechanism report planned for December 2026.
