The 1^stGlobal Gateway Forum took place in Brussels on 25-26 October 2023 bringing together representatives of governments from the European Union and from around the world with the private sector, civil society, leading thinkers, financing institutions, and international organisations.

Global Gateway (website) is the EU investment offer to its partners around the world aiming at narrowing the global investment gap and ensuring security of global supply chains. It boosts smart, clean and secure links in the digital, transport, energy and climate-relevant sectors, and strengthens education, research and health networks. It provides investments for transformative, large-scale projects, while offering a respectful and qualitative and equal partnership to partner countries in line with the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement.

Working closely with European Member States, financial institutions and the private sector, Global Gateway promotes investments in hard infrastructure by improving the enabling environment, regulatory frameworks, norms and standards, technology transfer, know- how, while respecting and promoting international standards of labour, protection and respecting human rights, as well as good governance and transparency, which makes the Global Gateway approach unique.

Across the world, Global Gateway aims to mobilise up to €300 billion in investments between 2021 and 2027 with a mix of grants, concessional loans and guarantees to de-risk private sector investments. In 2023, almost Global Gateway 90 projects were identified together with beneficiary partners to ensure that the results improve their necessary infrastructure and connectivity.

• Examples of projects supported through Global Gateway:

In the Balkans, Global Gateway projects will improve the transport and energy connectivity in the region. In this regard, for instance, the construction of the 84 km electricity line connecting Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Hungary, Romania and Italy concluded in 2022 will be complemented by a new section between Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, while the construction of a new railway line between Skopje and the Bulgarian border will increase the capacity of freight transport in the region and allow for more inter-modality.

In Eastern Europe and the Caucasus, Global Gateway’s projects will promote connectivity in the Black Sea by deploying undersea electric and digital cables between Easter Europe, South Caucasus and Central Asia as well as help unlocking the capacity for renewable energy generation in the region: from Georgian hydro-power to solar and wind power in Azerbaijan, and solar power in Armenia. Finally, new digital cables will facilitate data traffic in the region, which is expected to triple every year.

In the Mediterranean region, Global Gateway projects are embedded in broader national or regional packages of actions and investment and will support more resilient supply chains in growing manufacturing sectors. Projects include also digital interconnection initiatives such as the Medusa Cable project and electricity connection programmes.

The EU-Africa Global Gateway Investment Package (website) will mobilise €150 billion of investments by 2027 for projects based on national priorities and addressing regional priorities inscribed in the Agenda 2063. Projects support solid foundations for the success of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) by promoting strategic corridors for transport, energy and digital, enhancing connectivity in the region as well as enabling business environment (labour standards, trading conditions, regulatory convergence, standardisation, supply chain and financial services integration).

In the Asia-Pacific region, Global Gateway will contribute, for example, to green power generation and transmission from the Himalayas to India and Bangladesh supporting the phasing out of fossil power generation and the adoption of renewables and improve regional connectivity. The Copernicus Philippines programme will support the upgrade of digital skills and capacities of the national Space Agency on disaster risk management and the Just Energy Transition Partnerships (under preparation in the G7 framework) will further boost green regional energy connectivity. A digital connectivity project launched at the “EU–Central Asia Connectivity Conference” in Samarkand in November 2022 will provide satellite connectivity in the region through earth stations. Finally, the multi-donor Kiwa facility implemented as part of the Green Blue Alliance will help attracting climate finance to support the Pacific countries and territories in the protection of their biodiversity through nature-based solutions.

In Latin America and the Caribbean, Global Gateway will support connectivity through projects under the BELLA trans-Atlantic inter-connectivity programme, the Digital Accelerator and the two regional Copernicus satellite centers in Panama and Chile. These will strengthen the capacities of beneficial countries on disaster risk reduction, their transition towards carbon neutrality, land and marine monitoring, support broadband connectivity to schools and healthcare facilities.

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