Antigua Hires Lobbyist To Protect EU Visa-Free Access

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Antigua and Barbuda is to shell out US$ 250 thousand a year to engage the services of lobbyists as the Citizenship by Investment programme “comes under threat by the EU.”

“The EU now seems to be tightening the screws on Malta. I think they are also signaling to others outside of the European Union that they are willing to reconsider their visa-free access,” Prime Minister Gaston Browne announced over the weekend.

“I don’t think they quite like the idea that individuals outside of the European Union can utilise the visa-free access to have free access,” he added.

Browne told listeners to his Pointe FM Radio that “we do not accept that the level of risk is as great as they wish to suggest and clearly we have to increase our lobbying.”

The Prime Minister said Antigua and Barbuda has become the first nation to sign an agreement to hire the lobbyist to do work in the EU and US.

We were able to sign an agreement with the Immigration Investment Entity to try to galvanize all the Caribbean countries that offer CIP to try to lobby within the EU to make sure that they do not withdraw the visa-free access because that will make our citizenship and residency programmes less attractive.”

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11 COMMENTS

  1. Hello PM Browne, could you please allow the Antigua CIP program to provide hereditary rights to children of Antigua CIP citizens? Currently the rules state that a newborn child of a Antigua CIP citizen is not a citizen unless a fee of $25,000 is paid. This is simply unfair. St Kitts allows its CIP citizens to have children and they are considered full St Kitts citizens without having to pay some crazy fee.

    Also, I would hope that Antigua focuses on getting visa-free access to China and Russia. The EU is nice to have but those economies are in the past, the future is Asia and China.

  2. Note well that the PM does not mention the citizens in Antigua will lose visa free access like we did for Canada. It is all about selling passports.
    Advice for all Antiguans : any plans to travel to Europe do it now. This administration will not stop until all the visa free access that the UPP had ushered in are revoked. The UPP fought for visa free access so Antiguans could travel and broaden their horizons, the ALP however sees it as a revenue earning scheme and nothing more.
    PM said he does not think the risk is as great , well it does not matter what he thinks , Visa free access is a privelege granted to citizens of a country and cannot be resold to a third party or used as a bargaining chip.

  3. We may not accept the risk but the risk is theirs to accept. If there is a man at your front door waving a cutlass, it is the owner of the house who has to assess the risk. Would you accept this risk and open your front because he says there is no risk?

  4. COMMON SENSE
    A BIRD IN HAND IS WORTH MORE THAN TWO IN THE BUSH. THE DOG AND THE BONE STORY IS TRUE AFTER ALL.

    CANADA
    UK
    EU
    THAT IS A SIGNIFICANT AMOUNT OF COUNTRIES, WHO WILL BY THE PASSPORT NOW. ANTIGUANS ARE NOW MARGINALIZED, AND WHAT DO WE HAVE TO SHOW FOR THIS MAJOR INCONVIENENCE OF DITCHING OUT SCARCE RESOURCES TO JUMP THROUGH FIRE HOOPS TO APPLY FOR COSTLY VISAS WITH NO GURANTEE THAT IT WILL BE GRANTED.
    HEY LOOK AT THE BRIGHT SIDE WE HAVE VISA FREE ACCESS TO COUNTRIES THAT WE DO NOT SPEAK THEIR LANGUAGE AND IS NOT EVEN AWARE EXISTED….

  5. This is crap and waste of tax payers dollars in hiring a lobbyist. If a nation decided to withdraw free-visa-access from Antigua and Barbuda, there is nothing Gaston Browne or anyone can do. Everyone are tightening up their security boarders, and it is time for we in Antigua and Barbuda do the same.

  6. We are so adamant that the CIP is the way to go that we are now willing to fork out USD$250,000 a year to pay a lobbyist to help plead our case to the US and the EU. Clearly, our days of visa less entry to the EU are numbered and this is another step by the PM to help to delay the inevitable. Is it really worth it? The CIP continues to damage the credibility of Antigua & Barbuda and whilst some monies might go into the treasury, the negatives far outweigh the positives. At present, we are able to travel to the UK and other European countries without the need for a visa. That is now under severe treat. Can someone stop this government please.

  7. So this man is willing to risk all Antiguans and Barbudans visa free access for CIP?when Canada canceled there’s only the least concern wouldn’t know that the next one to take there’s from us would be the Eu,so sad,this is what we come too?really,paying a lobbyist to try and keep our traveling to the EU without visa safe?scrap the shit it doesn’t benefit us cuz everything in the country is still the same or worst,

  8. Foolish,who built Europe?we did with all our resources and hard labour,it’s time we build our carribean and stick togeather and trade with each other it’s not all that out here it’s time to build our own.

  9. For the PM to hired a lobbyist, it mean that Antigua and Barbuda will be losing some more free-visa-access soon and I am sure England is one and other EU countries.

Comments are closed.