A major political controversy has erupted in Dominica this week after the opposition Dominica Freedom Party (DFP) launched a scathing attack on the ruling administration’s management of the country’s high-stakes Citizenship by Investment (CBI) programme, following fresh reports that the European Union has formally demanded regional governments wind down these citizenship schemes.
The DFP’s official statement, dated July 13, 2026, confirms the party first learned of the EU’s formal request through public comments made by Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne. Browne has already confirmed that the EU raised its formal concerns about CBI programmes with all member states of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) starting in June 2026.
Just last week, leaders of Eastern Caribbean nations that currently run active CBI programmes gathered in Dominica for an emergency summit. At the close of the meeting, the leaders agreed to adopt a coordinated regional strategy to strengthen the programme’s regulatory frameworks and defend the scheme, which they collectively characterize as a critical lifeline for their small, vulnerable national economies.
Per the DFP’s breakdown, the EU has officially ordered all participating countries to phase out their CBI programmes, with Antigua and Barbuda explicitly given a deadline of June 1, 2028, to end the scheme. Browne has also confirmed that identical formal communications have been dispatched to all other OECS countries running CBI programmes, including Dominica. Unlike the Dominican administration, Browne has already publicly pushed back against the EU’s demand, arguing that CBI revenue is an irreplaceable core income stream for small island developing states that have very few alternative economic development options.
The core of the DFP’s criticism centers on the Dominican government’s decision to remain silent on the issue rather than address the public about the potential risks. The opposition party warns that any country that fails to comply with the EU’s phase-out mandate by 2028 could lose its visa-free travel access to all EU member states—a change that would immediately destroy the value and viability of regional CBI programmes, as investment demand relies entirely on the visa-free benefit.
The DFP notes that this looming outcome is far from unexpected. As far back as the 2019 Dominican general election campaign, the party warned that Dominica was at risk of losing its CBI programme due to lax due diligence procedures, unaddressed ethical concerns, and potential security risks that the scheme posed to European nations. Today, the party also says it has long flagged the extreme danger of Dominica’s overreliance on CBI revenue to fund basic government operations.
To back this claim, the DFP cites figures from the government’s 2025/2026 national fiscal budget, which projects that 56.7% of all the country’s recurrent government revenue will come directly from the CBI programme. Non-CBI recurrent revenue is budgeted at just 456.2 million Eastern Caribbean dollars, while total projected recurrent expenditure stands at 679.9 million Eastern Caribbean dollars—creating a massive gap that is currently filled by CBI proceeds.
If the CBI programme is forced to end by 2028, the DFP argues the Dominican government will be forced to make agonizing fiscal adjustments: deep cuts to recurrent public spending, a sharp increase in public borrowing, tax hikes across the board, or some combination of all three. These changes, the party says, would directly impact core public services that rely on government funding, including salaries for public sector workers, the National Employment Programme, the Yes We Care social safety net programme, public healthcare services, road maintenance, and other routine government operations. In a worst-case scenario, the country could face delayed salary payments for public workers, struggles to meet sovereign debt obligations, declining road infrastructure, and widespread shortages of critical medical supplies.
The loss of CBI funding would also derail progress on major long-term capital projects, including the planned new international airport, the party adds. The combination of steep spending cuts and large tax increases would place unprecedented additional strain on Dominica’s already fragile small economy.
Framing the entire crisis as a direct consequence of poor governance by the current administration, the DFP said in its statement: “The way out of our current and impending worsening malaise is certainly not by entrusting the same government to take the country out of the mess in which it has placed the nation.” The party went further, accusing the ruling Dominica Labour Party (DLP) administration of systemic incompetence and widespread corruption, claiming that misappropriation of public funds is the administration’s most consistent trait.
Looking ahead, the DFP says it has already begun stepped-up organizational preparations to navigate what it expects to be a prolonged period of severe economic challenge. The opposition plans to release a detailed set of alternative policy proposals to the public in the coming months, arguing that Dominica must adopt integrity, transparency, and good governance as the core foundations for long-term national development.
In closing, the DFP acknowledged that the short-term economic damage of losing the CBI programme “may not be avoidable,” but argued that the crisis could ultimately serve as an opportunity to put the country on a more sustainable economic trajectory under new national leadership.
