EU Agrees to Form Committee With OECS to “Discuss and Structure” CBI Programs

Kittitian Prime Minister Terrance Drew, who is also the current Chairman of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), says the European Union has agreed to form a committee with the OECS to “discuss and structure” the region’s citizenship by investment programs.

All five of the Caribbean CIPs are OECS member countries. Senior representatives of each of the Caribbean Five (the prime ministers, except in Saint Lucia’s case) last week attended the EU-CELAC (EU + Community of Latin American and Caribbean States) Summit in Brussels. During the summit, Prime Minister Drew told Saint Kitts & Nevis Information Service yesterday, the EU raised various concerns about citizenship by investment in the Caribbean.

“These concerns were surrounding issues of security, issues of abuse of the program, and the opportunity to be invited to be a citizen of the country,” explained the PM. He also indicated he had, together with Michael Martin, the head of the Saint Kitts & Nevis Citizenship by Investment Unit, prepared a document that addressed each of these concerns, outlining how they had recently strengthened the Saint Kitts & Nevis CIP.

“We showed in the document we sent to them that our due diligence is strong and, where we think there might be cause, we are going to address those matters,” remarked Prime Minister Drew.

Neither PM Drew, nor the post-summit press release from the EU, provided any details as to the form or meeting frequency of the committee to discuss the CBI question.

Since Vanuatu lost its visa-free access to Schengen in May 2022, Caribbean CBI jurisdictions have increasingly sought to engage the EU in conversation regarding citizenship by investment. Just last week, the United Kingdom decided to cut visa-free access for nationals of Dominica and Vanuatu, and rumors that it plans to make similar moves for other Caribbean CBI countries abound.