Gaston Browne
Prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda since 2014.
Gaston Browne, prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda since 2014, asked the European Commission in New York on 24 September for two and a half to three years to wind down his country's passport sales. The talks ended without a deal.
Last refreshed: 3 October 2026 · Appears in 1 active topic
Will the EU accept a three-year wind-down of Caribbean passport sales?
Timeline for Gaston Browne
Asked for a transition and floated 2.5 to 3 years
Nomads & Communities: Caribbean PMs ask EU for CBI transitionBackground
Gaston Browne has been prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda since 2014. His government runs one of the Caribbean citizenship-by-investment schemes, which sell passports to foreign investors and which the European Union now wants closed.
A Commission letter in June 2026 asked Antigua and Barbuda to close its scheme by 1 June 2028 with two vetting safeguards to be in place by September. On 24 September, in New York, Browne and Saint Lucia's prime minister Philip J. Pierre met European Commissioner Magnus Brunner to ask for a longer transition. Browne's proposal was a wind-down of two and a half to three years. No agreement came out of it, and a technical TEAM from the two islands was due to meet EU officials in October.
Browne faces fiscal and diplomatic stakes at once. Passport revenue funds a large share of small Caribbean budgets, while the EU's leverage is the Visa-free Schengen access that Antigua and Barbuda's citizens hold.
How long a transition did Antigua and Barbuda ask for?
Who did Gaston Browne meet in New York?
What is the EU deadline for Antigua and Barbuda's passport scheme?
