The European Union has launched the Global Gateway, a €300bn international development programme to boost sustainable connectivity and infrastructure around the world.
EU president, Ursula von der Leyen has told the world that the EU is ready to help bridge the global infrastructure gap with its new €300bn programme.
Speaking at the launch of the Global Gateway, she said “We all know that there is a huge investment need out there, when it comes to global infrastructure,” before stressing that along with tackling the question of climate change, this programme would help answer “the question of sustainable development for developing countries; the question of global health security – it is a new big topic, since almost two years now. And with that occurred also the question of resilient, open, reliable supply chains.”
The EU president then called on the world to find the right projects for investment, saying “we are convinced that countries need trusted partners to design projects that are sustainable and that are of high quality. We want projects that are implemented with a high level of transparency and good governance, and quality. And in the very end, these projects have to deliver on the ground tangible results that benefit the local communities and the people in the respective countries.”
Global Gateway will mobilise €300bn by 2027. It will invest all over the world to support the green and the digital transitions, including investment in clean hydrogen.
The EU already has a strong expertise in renewable energy and hopes to put this to use across much of the developing world, and it hopes as well to improve international data connections with new underwater cables between continents.
Ursula von der Leyen also highlighted other sectors and issues of social development, saying “Global Gateway will also focus on transport links, healthcare capacities – I said at the beginning that the global health security is one of the big topics. But it will also support schools and education systems because we know by experience from our investment at home, here, it is the investment in infrastructure but also in skills.”
As a flagship EU programme, Global Gateway will seek to operate democratically and adhere to strong values. Ms von der Leyen explained, “We want to make Global Gateway a trusted brand that stands out because of high quality, reliable standards and high-level of transparency and good governance. We are deeply convinced that this will ensure that the investment makes a real difference on the ground and that this is done in a sustainable way.”
And a major focus in ensuring that happens will come from the private sector, whose expertise and capacity will be integral to success.
“To give it the scale that is necessary, we need to involve the private sector. And this is not just about attracting financial capital – of course this is important – but with that, we are also attracting technology and know-how capital that this private business sector can bring along,” said the president.
