Today, the first Global Gateway Forum opened in Brussels. It brought together over 40 high-level Government representatives, financial institutions and business representatives to discuss the world’s investment needs, debate solutions and seal new deals. The panel discussions on the first day focused on green energy and hydrogen, research and education, critical raw materials and transport corridors.
President von der Leyen opened the Forum, and stated:
“The fate of present and future generations depends, more than ever before, on the quality and quantity of the infrastructure that connects us all. Team Europe has put forward Europe’s largest global investment programme ever: the Global Gateway. Global Gateway is about giving choices to countries – better choices. Because for many countries around the world, investment options are not only limited, but they all come with a lot of small print, and sometimes with a very high price. That is why Global Gateway investments work: they are demand-driven and they are a win-win for all partners involved.” The full speech is available on EbS here and you can also read it here.
On the eve of the Forum, the Global Gateway Civil Society and Local Authorities Dialogue Platform held its first meeting with Commissioner for International Partnerships Jutta Urpilainen. The platform will be a space for civil society and local authorities to engage on Global Gateway rollout within the different investment priorities.
Agreements and announcements made during the first day of the Forum:
Green energy
During the first day of the Global Gateway Forum, several announcements in the field of the green energy transition were made:
- €500 million for the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) in Vietnam, to foster the renewable energy transition in the country.
- €400 million to foster renewable energy in Bangladesh under the partnership for Green Energy Transition.
- €246 million package in support of a greener and more sustainable future for Cabo Verde, including an energy sustainability loan, support for the Cabeólica wind farm expansion project, upgrades to the country’s port infrastructure and more accessible and affordable internet connectivity across the country.
- €146 million to the construction of the Kakono hydropower plant in Tanzania, contributing significantly to both economic development and climate change adaptation.
- €60 million for the Green Economy Programme with the Philippines, to assist the country in transitioning towards a sustainable economy.
- €20.4 million for the Green and Blue Pact in Comoros to boost the country’s environmental and food resilience.
Additionally, the EU and Mauritania launched a new Team Europe initiative to support investment in the energy transition and decarbonisation of Mauritania’s economy, by developing its green hydrogen industries. Complementing this initiative, the EU has also signed new cooperation actions in 2023, including €13.7 million to promote sustainable food systems and access to quality and affordable food and €10 million to promote blue economy in Mauritania.
Critical raw materials
The roadmap for the EU–Namibia strategic partnership on sustainable raw materials value chains and renewable hydrogen was endorsed on 24 October. Backed by €1 billion in investments by the EU, its Member States and European financial institutions, the roadmap for the period 2023-2025 details the concrete actions in which the partnership will advance its goals, in close cooperation with EU and Namibia financial and private sector stakeholders.
Transport corridors
The EU will also support an upcoming study for the development of the Walvis Bay port in Namibia, the entry point from the Atlantic side to the Walvis Bay – Maputo Corridor, one of the eleven Strategic Corridors the EU envisages to support as part of the EU-Africa Global Gateway Investment Package. With EU support, a masterplan that covers multimodal infrastructure, spatial planning and market organisation will be developed.
The EU also announced a €12 million grant to rehabilitate and modernise two key sections of railway lines in the Republic of Moldova, complemented by a further forthcoming loan of €42 million from the EIB, that will not only enhance internal connectivity in the Republic of Moldova, but also offer a crucial export route for Ukraine, further strengthening the Solidarity Lanes initiative and fostering regional stability and economic resilience, as well as a €16 million blending grant through EIB Global, to improve the road safety in Georgia along Georgia’s East- West highway.
Education
In the education sector, Commissioner Urpilainen signed a €46 million contract as a major step taking forward the roll-out of the Regional Teachers’ Initiative for Africa to support the development and implementation of policies, education and professional development for teachers.
The EU also announced a €10 million grant through EIB Global, to improve education infrastructure in Armenia through the construction of two extra curricula education and teacher training centres in the Southern part of the country.
In addition, €30 million was committed for the Republic of Tajikistan to boost education. Finally, an Annual Action Plan for 2023 and 2024 benefiting Kenya, with an education component, was signed.
More Information
Global Gateway
Global Gateway Forum
Commission launches Civil Society and Local Authorities Dialogue Platform
EU and Namibia agree on next steps of strategic partnership
EU launches a Team Europe Initiative to develop green hydrogen in Mauritania and accelerate its energy transition
Team Europe and Cabo Verde present an investment package of €246 million to boost green energy, sustainable transport and digital connectivity transformation
EU and Bangladesh sign €400 million for renewable energy and launch negotiations on a new Partnership and Cooperation Agreement
Team Europe and Viet Nam sign over €500 million in agreements underpinning the Just Energy Transition Partnership
EU and Philippines sign €60 million Green Economy Programme
Global Gateway Forum: EU and Comoros sign agreements for €28.9 million to boost national development
Global Gateway Forum: EU boosts employment in Tajikistan with €30 million in budget support
Global Gateway Forum: Tanzania secures funding from EU and French Development Agency for Kakono hydropower plant
Global Gateway Forum: EU takes major step in delivering on the Regional Teachers’ Initiative for Africa
Global Gateway Forum: EU announces €16 million for improving road safety in Georgia along the East-West Highway
Global Gateway Forum: EU announces €12 million for railway lines in the Republic of Moldova
Global Gateway Forum: EU announces over €10 million to support education opportunities in Armenia
Global Gateway Forum: EU launches €72 Million cooperation priorities for Kenya to strengthen the green, digital and inclusive transitions
Quote(s)
The fate of present and future generations depends, more than ever before, on the quality and quantity of the infrastructure that connects us all. Team Europe has put forward Europe’s largest global investment programme ever: the Global Gateway. Global Gateway is about giving choices to countries – better choices. Because for many countries around the world, investment options are not only limited, but they all come with a lot of small print, and sometimes with a very high price. That is why Global Gateway investments work: they are demand-driven and they are a win-win for all partners involved.
Opening speech by President von der Leyen at the Global Gateway Forum
Brussels, 25 October 2023
Fellow leaders,
Excellencies,
Distinguished friends,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is a huge honour for us to welcome you all here in Brussels for the very first edition of the Global Gateway Forum. To our special guests who have come from so far, I would like to express all my thanks for making this journey. It is wonderful to have you here. The poet and statesman, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, wrote in one of his great works: ‘He who moves not forward goes backward.’ As so often, Goethe was right. We are here to move forward together. Because in the recent years, it has often felt like the world has taken a step back.
We know that 18 days ago a heinous terror attack by Hamas on Israel has triggered even more conflict and suffering in the region. Russia is waging an imperial war of aggression against its smaller democratic neighbour Ukraine. We are in a climate crisis. We are still recovering from a pandemic that ravaged lives, livelihoods, and trade. These are great challenges that affect us all and demand our cooperation. The fate of present and future generations depends, more than ever before, on the quality and quantity of the infrastructure that connects us all. Investment in affordable, clean energy. Investment in digital infrastructure. Investment to better equip our workers with skills that match the jobs of tomorrow.
That is why Team Europe has put forward Europe’s largest global investment programme ever. As you know, we call it Global Gateway. It is a EUR 300 billion programme for financing and building clean infrastructure. Global Gateway has the size to make a difference. Just as importantly, Global Gateway lays out a new approach to big infrastructure projects. For us is important that Global Gateway is about giving choices to countries – better choices. Because for many countries around the world, investment options are not only limited, but they all come with a lot of small print, and sometimes with a very high price. Sometimes it is the environment that pays the price. Sometimes it is workers, who are stripped of their rights. Sometimes foreign workers are brought in. And sometimes national sovereignty is compromised. No country should be faced with a situation in which the only option to finance its essential infrastructure is to sell its future.
We, in Europe, have a clear strategic interest to join forces, at eyes level, to overcome global challenges. And there are global challenges. A virus knows no borders. Climate change knows no borders. The same is true for the impact of terrorism and war. We know that our security is built on your security – and vice versa. Our competitiveness increases when your economies grow and prosper. Our resilience is stronger when you, our friends, are also more resilient. Then we will all win. That is why Europe has chosen to work closer with our partners. And two years since we have launched Global Gateway, we are seeing the positive results. Let me share with you some stories of the impact.
This year’s Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded to Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman for their discoveries of mRNA vaccines. Back in the 1990s, these pioneering scientists had a difficult time finding money for their research. We all know the story: Two decades later, their work helped to develop safe and effective vaccines against COVID-19 in record time. And it saved millions of lives around the world. It was in this hour of need that Global Gateway was born. Because despite the success of mRNA vaccines, many regions of the world did not yet have access to the life-saving technology. So, following the call from African leaders, the European Commission and Team Europe got together with world-leading companies like BioNTech, Univercells, and others. We teamed up with Ghana, Rwanda, Senegal and South Africa to build the first vaccine manufacturing capacity on the continent. And to date, we have already mobilised EUR 1.2 billion. The modular factories have already arrived in Rwanda to help produce mRNA vaccines. And it is not just about COVID-19 vaccines. The amazing thing about mRNA technology is that it promises to effectively fight illnesses that – and you know them all – are endemic to Africa, still killing millions of people, such as malaria, tuberculosis, or HIV.
Vaccine manufacturing was Global Gateway’s first flagship project, but there are of course many more. This year alone, our work has focused on nearly 90 flagship projects. For example, we launched a partnership with our friends in Latin America and the Caribbean who also want to team up on vaccines and medicines. In Mexico, we saw key investments from Sanofi to produce influenza vaccines. In Bangladesh and Vietnam, we have launched projects on solar, offshore wind and hydropower, worth over EUR 1 billion together. We are laying fibre-optic internet cables under the Black Sea to Georgia and to Central Asia. And we are connecting railways and electricity grids in the Western Balkans, Moldova and Ukraine, to bring them closer to our Single Market. Over the next 24 hours, we will have announcements and signatures running into hundreds of millions of euros. So far, since we launched Global Gateway in 2021, the European Union has already committed EUR 66 billion to transformative projects. Almost half of this are grants that do not have to be paid back. And this is from our EU budget alone. Very important: On top come Member States and private finance. So, there is still much to do, but we can already say today that Global Gateway is delivering.
My second point is climate change. Climate change causes tremendous instability and suffering. But it is also an economic opportunity if we do it right. So, we made clean tech and clean energy a priority of Global Gateway investments. More and more developing economies are joining the clean energy race, I am very glad about this. I saw this firsthand when I visited Nairobi for the Africa Climate Summit. I must say I was deeply impressed and inspired by the confidence and the optimism of my counterparts. They said very clearly that they want to leapfrog into a clean energy future while industrialising and creating good jobs for their people. They want to grow their economy while protecting the green lungs of the world. They have huge potential to do that: renewable energy and clean hydrogen, critical raw materials, rich biodiversity and a young workforce. So developing economies can be a crucial part of the solution to climate change. And we Europeans can diversify and strengthen our supply chains in those growing, dynamic new markets. That is why Global Gateway investments work: they are demand-driven and they are a win-win for all partners involved.
Today, we will announce new deals on critical raw materials with the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Zambia. Together, we are building the Trans-African Corridor, which will connect southern DRC and northern Zambia to global markets via the Port of Lobito in Angola. We are also building strategic economic corridors in southern Africa, connecting the Atlantic and the Indian Ocean. Namibia, for example, is set to become a regional and global energy hub. Together, we are teaming up with the European Investment Bank to turn Namibia’s abundant wind and solar resources into plentiful renewable energy. It is an attractive business plan that is so interesting that countries from Colombia to Mauritania and Kazakhstan are working with us on similar projects. On the one hand, clean hydrogen can be easily exported to other countries. On the other hand, and crucially, clean hydrogen can also fuel new local industries in our partner countries. Just imagine clean steel and concrete, or clean fertilisers and chemicals, clean trains and ships. The world is asking for that. This is how we together, if we do it right and if we work hard, can become global leaders in the clean industries of tomorrow.
This brings me to my third point. The private sector can and must play a key role in improving speed, scale, and impact of Global Gateway investments. We need the private sector. That is why close cooperation with business is one very important pillar of Global Gateway. We are mobilising the financial firepower of Europe’s leading companies. The magic is in this public-private teamwork – through public funds, then training and enabling regulation, a conducive environment for the private sector, so that we can provide the long-term predictability that private investors need to start ambitious projects. Let me give you an example for an ambitious project, like for example the MEDUSA project, which we are also announcing today with Egypt. Here, for the very first time, we are connecting the north and south shores of the Mediterranean with a high-capacity, fibre-optic cable. But we also need to ask ourselves: How can we do more, together? What have we learnt so far? What do we need to prioritise to be even faster, go even bigger and have even more impact? These are questions I would like to discuss the next two days with you. Because you know that many of our projects are just taking off. You know where the challenges are but also where the advantages are. We are determined to overcome any kind of hurdle that is in our way. We can do it together. If we join forces, we can move mountains and succeed. And therefore, your input and advice are so important to us.
Dear friends,
The poem by Goethe that I quoted at the start of my speech is also about profound challenges and changes. The poem was created once in a small German town surrounded by the wars of the French Revolution. But it is not a story of despair. No, it is a tale of hope. Because in the end it is a tale of ordinary women and men from across borders who overcome their differences and work together. They move forward, not backward. This too is our mission today. And I continue to look forward to working more closely with all of you to shape a better tomorrow. I thank you for your presence here. Thank you very much for being at the Global Gateway Forum.
Source – EU Commission