Today, the European Commission has adopted a Communication on “building sustainable international partnerships as a Team Europe,” taking stock of the progress achieved in the field of International Partnerships. Over the past five years, EU has revamped its model of cooperation in response to the evolving geopolitical and geoeconomic landscape and global challenges, notably the growing gap to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.
The EU has moved away from donor-recipient dynamics towards mutually beneficial partnerships, which bring benefits to the local populations and strengthen resilience at home and abroad. This approach was embodied in the Global Gateway investment strategy launched in 2021. By investing in partnerships, the EU seeks to position itself in an increasingly contested international environment.
Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, the European Union institutions, EU Member States, and European development financial institutions first pushed for joint responses in a Team Europe spirit, which has since become an integral part of the EU’s external action toolbox allowing the EU to increase the scale, impact, and visibility of its actions. Bringing on board also the private sector, Team Europe approach has been the main delivery mechanism of the EU’s Global Gateway investment strategy.
Global Gateway is expected to mobilise up to €300 billion is sustainable public and private investments by the year 2027. Between 2021-2023, €179 billion in investments have been mobilised in in our partner countries across the world, advancing 225 flagship projects. Out of these, €50 billion were supported by the European Commission and €129 billion were mobilised by EU Member States, the EIB and the EBRD.
The Global Gateway strategy focuses on five priority areas, each backed by concrete projects across various regions. Some examples include:
- Climate and Energy: Global Gateway supports investments in renewable energy and infrastructure, such as the green hydrogen facilities in Namibia to harness wind and solar power, as well as rare earth resources. This partnership aims to make Namibia a leader in green energy, contributing to global climate goals. The EU is supporting Costa Rica’s National Decarbonisation Plan, focusing on electrifying public transport and turning the harmful Sargassum alga into an economic resource through research and collaborations in sectors like cosmetics and biomass production in the Caribbean basin.
- Digital Transition: The EU has launched five Digital Economy Packages to foster human-centric digital growth. A key example is the Copernicus Earth Observation Programme in the Philippines, which uses satellite data for disaster risk management and improves connectivity infrastructure. The EU has also launched the EU Latin America and Caribbean Digital Alliance to boost comprehensive cooperation on digital transition, including policy dialogue on cybersecurity.
- Transport Connectivity: To improve infrastructure and regulatory frameworks, the EU has undertaken to support large-scale projects like the Trans-Caspian Transport Corridor and€ the Lobito Corridor to enhance trade routes between Europe, Asia, and Africa. The Lobito Corridor will improve the connection between Angola’s Lobito Port to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Zambia, whilst the Trans-Caspian project will strengthen Central Asia’s role as a connectivity hub.
- Health: The EU’s Global Health Strategy, focuses on strengthening health systems and pharmaceutical supply chains, deliver better health and prevent health threats. For instance, the Team Europe Initiative on vaccines and medicines improves access to vaccines and healthcare in Africa, including the creation of local manufacturing capacities, which is vital for boosting resilience in the face of global health challenges.
- Education and Research: The EU has increased its investment in education from 7% to 13%, with a strong emphasis on gender equality and teacher training. The Regional Teachers Initiative for Africa addresses the teacher’s gap of over 15 million additional teachers by 2030 to achieve universal primary and secondary education by then.
The Communication also recounts the EU’s engagement in fragile contexts and countries, where the primary objective is to address root causes of fragility and support the basic needs and livelihoods of populations, along the Humanitarian-Development-Peace nexus.
The EU has scaled up work to provide a comprehensive response to address root causes of migration. The external dimension is an essential component of the Pact on Migration and Asylum, and in line with the Pact, the EU has increased engagement with countries of origin and transit.
To further support SDGs, the EU has significantly strengthened its multilateral engagement with global institutions like the United Nations, the G7/G20, and International Financial Institutions to shape global policies. As part of its priorities, the EU has made substantial financial contributions to international initiatives that promote global health, education, and equality, including €700 million for the Global Partnership for Education (2021-2027), €427 million committed to the Pandemic Fund, and €300 million to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance to expand access to vaccines in poorer nations.
Another key achievement is the Samoa Agreement, signed in November 2023, with African, Caribbean, and Pacific States to strengthen the EU’s cooperation with these regions. This agreement helps the EU to maintain its role as a champion for youth, equality, gender, and human rights.
Full text of the Joint Communication
Full text of the Factsheet:
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Quotes:
The past five years have brought unprecedented global crises that cannot be tackled by any single country alone. Now, more than ever, cooperation and partnerships are essential to effectively address today’s challenges. Through Global Gateway, we have revitalised our cooperation with partner countries, and have seen firsthand the positive impact of our Team Europe approach. Together, we will continue to foster prosperity, safeguard people’s well-being, and promote social equality.
High Representative/Vice-President Josep Borrell
In a time of multiple crises and global challenges, the EU needed to adapt its cooperation model to boost resilience against global shocks. Our Team Europe approach, supported by the Global Gateway investment strategy, has taken off and the results so far show the effectiveness of our new approach. I firmly believe that our intensified efforts with partners to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals will bear fruit. At the same time, the EU has remained engaged in fragile contexts like the Sahel and Afghanistan to support the most vulnerable populations.
Jutta Urpilainen, Commissioner for International Partnerships
Source – EU Commission
Remarks by EU Commissioner Urpilainen at the press conference on the Joint Communication on Building sustainable international partnerships as a Team Europe
Brussels, 2 October 2024
“Check against delivery”
[…] Today, the College has adopted the [Joint] Communication on ‘Building sustainable international partnerships as a Team Europe’. This Communication takes stock of the progress made in the field of International Partnerships during this mandate.
The Communication summarises how International Partnerships have contributed towards this Commission’s political priorities, notably the priority of ‘A stronger Europe in the world’.
First, a couple of words on the context and the paradigm shift in the European Union’s model of cooperation.
At the beginning of this mandate, this Commission set out to move away from the donor-recipient model towards equal partnerships. We recognised that our partner countries in the Global South want to be more than subjects of aid. But also, that the challenges we face are shared, with common interests at stake.
Over the past five years, we have been hit by multiple global crises, which have come on top of climate change, but also regional instability and mounting geopolitical tensions. The crises have underlined our interconnectedness and increased further the financing gap to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Of course, all this has made the shift become even more urgent.
Resilience has really become the key word. The new paradigm is built on mutually beneficial partnerships that enforce both the partners’ resilience and Europe’s resilience.
One important aspect of this shift is Team Europe. This approach, which brings together the European Union institutions, the European Union Member States, the European development finance institutions and – more and more – also the European private sector, has become our method of delivery of external action.
It was first deployed during the pandemic when it became clear that we can be much more impactful by pooling resources and know-how. Team Europe enables us to increase the scale and visibility of our actions.
Then there is Global Gateway. Our strategy launched in 2021, to mobilise up to €300 billion in sustainable investments in infrastructure and human development by the year 2027. Global Gateway embodies the new way of doing international cooperation.
It is the European Union’s positive offer to partner countries in a very contested international environment. It aims to advance sustainable development and mutual priorities, like fair green and digital twin transitions, as well as boosting the strategic autonomy of our partners as well as the European Union.
We deliver Global Gateway as Team Europe. Cooperation with the private sector also has a central role. We use public resources to facilitate an enabling environment for investment, growth, and local value addition.
Today’s Communication offers tangible examples of Global Gateway implementation in International Partnerships regions in its main thematic sectors.
Between 2021 and 2023, Team Europe mobilised investments worth €179 billion in support of Global Gateway projects. And this figure includes Africa, Asia, the Pacific, Latin America, the Caribbean and the European Union’s immediate neighbourhood. This means that we have already delivered more than half of our target of €300 billion.
Out of the €179 billion, €50 billion were supported by the Commission through the European Fund for Sustainable Development Plus (EFSD+) and €129 billion were mobilised by the European Union Member States, the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) alone.
But not everything we do is Global Gateway. The Communication covers also:
Engagement in fragile contexts, where the primary objective is to address root causes of fragility and support the basic needs and livelihoods of populations.
Migration, where we have scaled up work to provide a comprehensive response to address root causes. The external dimension is an essential component of the Pact on Migration and Asylum. In line with the Pact, we have increased engagement with origin and transit countries.
Multilateral engagement. Many of the Commissioners were in the United Nations General Assembly last week in New York. The European Union has championed multilateralism, been at the forefront of the 2030 Agenda implementation, and supported the legitimate request from partner countries to reform multilateral structures and international financial architecture. We have signed a new framework agreement – the Samoa agreement – for cooperation with African, Caribbean, and Pacific partners.
And we have also contributed to a range of global funds on health, education, and climate.
Finally, combatting inequality and empowering women and young people has been a crosscutting priority. In this regard, I look forward to hosting the High-Level Global Gateway event on Youth in Brussels next week!
So, dear colleagues, these are just some of the significant examples of our action over the past five years.
I will leave my responsibility soon with the conviction that we have laid a strong foundation for a future that will be more sustainable and resilient for both the European Union and our partner countries.
Thank you very much.
Source – EU Commission