The European Union announced a series of multibillion-dollar deals at a forum for its Global Gateway programme, the bloc's new infrastructure partnership plan, which is seen as an alternative to China's global Belt and Road Initiative ( BRI).
The first Global Gateway Forum began in Brussels on 25 October and was attended by 90 senior government representatives from over 20 countries, including 40 leaders and ministers, mostly from countries in the Global South.
At the opening of the summit, the 27 EU countries announced that the Global Gateway had already concluded deals worth €66 billion, and new deals worth €3 billion were signed during the multi-day meeting with governments from Europe, Asia and Africa in support of projects related to critical raw materials, green energy and transport corridors.
In her opening remarks, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen pledged to continue investing in high-quality projects, saying the Global Gateway was the "best choice" for financing and building clean infrastructure.
"The Global Gateway is about giving countries better choice," she said, adding that other investment options often come at a "high cost" to the environment, labor rights and sovereignty.
Launched at the end of 2021 and backed by Von der Leyen, the Global Gateway has earmarked €300 billion in an effort to improve EU investment and development cooperation around the world. Officials say the program will prioritize projects targeting renewable energy, the digital transition and sustainability as Brussels seeks to mobilize investment from member states and the private sector.
EU officials have avoided publicly presenting the Global Gateway as an alternative to the BRI, but the Brussels summit comes a week after China brought together representatives from more than 130 countries to mark the 10th anniversary of its $1 trillion global investment plan. And it appears the EU will prioritize elements such as transparency and environmental sustainability, which have been recurring points of contention for Beijing's BRI.
Speaking to Radio Free Europe, EU diplomats expressed weak support for the Global Gateway and expressed concern that the program faces headwinds from conflicting positions by European governments and various EU agencies on how to support it, as well as doubts whether Brussels can make more attractive offers to partner countries than China.
The "Global Gateway" is like many other EU initiatives - a good idea, but in the end it is about "repackaging" old money and, as always, about complexity, about having 10 or more different wallets instead of just one big money bank," an EU diplomat, who wished to remain anonymous, told RFE/RL.
The diplomat added that "of course the Global Gateway is a BRI competitor, but we don't say it out loud because then it limits the appeal for partner countries to make deals with programs that make it look like cooperation comes with 'binding' conditions." .
New offers, internal questions
At the Brussels summit, von der Leyen sought to frame the Global Gateway as a sustainable way to build long-term infrastructure, saying "no country should face a situation where the only option to fund its infrastructure is essentially to sell its future".
EU officials presented a list of new deals that included agreements on critical raw materials with the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia, as well as clean energy cooperation with Bangladesh, Cape Verde, Namibia, the Philippines, Tanzania and Vietnam.
The summit also awarded grants in the amount of 12 million euros to Moldova for the construction of new railway lines, a new agreement to support Turkmenistan's entry into the World Trade Organization, and an investment of 30 million euros in the development of professional education and training in Tajikistan.
Tajikistan's Foreign Minister Sirojiddin Muhriddin also led a delegation to Brussels to pitch to investors in the Central Asian country's hydropower sector as part of the region's wider green energy transition.
Other smaller agreements were signed with Armenia to invest EUR 10 million in education and with Georgia in the form of grants of EUR 16 million to improve safety on the country's East-West highway, which is at the heart of Georgia's ambitions to connect Tbilisi to the Black Sea and was built mainly by Chinese construction firms.
This set of agreements marks the visible beginning of the Global Gateway, another EU diplomat said.
"The concept is really something that the EU can offer on the world stage," the diplomat noted, adding that the program should focus more on being "more visible." "We are the largest donor of development cooperation in the world, but who knows that?" the diplomat said.
Another EU diplomat expressed concern about the seemingly low level of political representation at the Global Gateway summit. The heads of state of Armenia, the Comoros Islands, Namibia, Mauritania, Senegal and Somalia, as well as the prime ministers of Albania, Bangladesh, Cape Verde, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Georgia, Moldova, Morocco, Rwanda and Serbia participated in the event.
However, many EU countries did not send their senior officials to the meeting, with Germany represented by its climate secretary and Denmark and France by their development secretaries. Italy did not send a representative.
"The global portal is a strange animal," the diplomat said. "Its intentions are serious and laudable, but look at the list of participants and you will understand enough. Many leaders from countries outside the EU, but almost none from our countries."
If the Global Gateway can garner enough domestic support to achieve tangible results on the ground, it will be essential to its success, said Andrea Brinza, co-founder of the Romanian Institute for Asia-Pacific Studies.
"Right now Global Gateway is just a slogan," she said. "It's a brand that wraps the EU's development narrative very well - unfortunately, there's no content yet."
In recent years, China's BRI has been dogged by scandals and delays due to environmental damage, large loans and contract disputes. A study by the AidData Lab at the College of William and Mary in Virginia found that 35 percent of BRI projects suffered from corruption scandals, labor law violations, environmental hazards, and public protests. But the BRI has so far also produced targeted proposals in a way that appears attractive to governments, despite the controversy. It has also benefited from its swift implementation thanks to the role of state-owned companies and Chinese lenders who follow the directives of the Communist Party leadership.
Romana Vlahutin, a distinguished fellow at the German Marshall Fund and former EU Special Envoy for Connectivity, said the Global Gateway currently lacks "a clear strategic vision of how it will contribute to creating chains of diverse and sustainable youth worth." She added that one of the biggest obstacles to entrepreneurship is how to incentivize private markets in the bloc and in the West as a whole to invest in the kinds of projects that can have a transformative impact.
"It is essential that countries have the opportunity to make choices about what is best for them," Vlahutin said. "If there are only Chinese offerings on the market, that means there is no solution. That has to change." /BGNES
