Brussels “Global Gateway”, Europe’s answer to China’s “New Silk Road”, is becoming concrete. This is shown by internal EU documents that are available to the Handelsblatt. Accordingly, the European initiative is to have a supervisory board in which the foreign ministers of the member states will also meet under the leadership of the EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen and the “relevant commissioners”. Namibia and Tajikistan could become the first cooperation partners.
The topic is highly explosive. With Silk Road projects, the People’s Republic is opening up markets, forming cliques and creating dependencies. In Europe too: On Tuesday, Croatia opened a bridge across the Adriatic Sea that was built with Chinese help.
The case is an example of what strategic infrastructure policy is all about. The construction projects are not to be understood as charitable gifts from the Chinese, but as targeted attempts to influence government decisions through economic connections.
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Countering this is the goal of Global Gateway. The EU member states will intervene heavily in steering the initiative. The plans stipulate that the supervisory board will meet twice a year and “take over the strategic management of the implementation of Global Gateway and review the selection of lighthouse projects”. This is also to be understood as a vote of no confidence in the Commission.
Commission is standing in its own way
Global Gateway is one of von der Leyen’s most important projects. It is supposed to fulfill their promise to lead a “geopolitical commission”. But the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine has set back the launch of Global Gateway. For months, the discussion about sanctions in Brussels eclipsed all other topics.
At the summit meeting at Schloss Elmau, the G7 states already announced a “global partnership for infrastructure and investments”.
(Photo: Reuters)
In addition, the Commission stood in its own way. Not all officials share von der Leyen’s geopolitical vision. The Brussels apparatus was interested in member states’ money, but not in strategic input from national capitals.
“There are forces in the EU Commission who want to continue the previous development aid under a new label,” an EU diplomat explained to the Handelsblatt. “Therefore, the member states will now intervene more in the design.” Global Gateway is a foreign policy instrument “that does not primarily serve developmental goals, but rather strategic ones”.
It is about “pushing back China’s growing influence where European interests are affected”. For example in eastern Europe, in the western Balkans and in parts of Africa, but also along the trade routes to Asia.
In particular, Koen Doens, director of the powerful EU development agency International Partnerships, has drawn government anger. To the end, the head of the agency resisted seeing China as a system rival. He preferred to rave about development policy “win-win situations” – and thus adopted the jargon of the Chinese Communist Party.
The member states are now making it clear: the organizational structure of Global Gateway must already reflect “the new strategic approach”. The new infrastructure policy is about “changing the business model” – not about “remarketing development projects that are planned anyway”. The involvement of the foreign ministers is of “crucial” importance, especially since national governments should contribute almost half of the targeted 300 billion euros.
Global Gateway is designed to help achieve strategic goals
From the point of view of many EU countries, the Ukraine war and its consequences show how important it is to break away from development policy dogmas and to think strategically about infrastructure investments.
The EU is making little progress in trying to isolate Russia internationally. Apart from the Americans and their traditional allies in Asia, only a few countries have joined the sanctions regime against Moscow.
There is no concept of offering cooperation projects to the Global South – instead of just giving moral sermons. The need for infrastructure is enormous. According to EU estimates, 1.3 trillion euros per year are missing to achieve the development goals of the United Nations and to create a climate-neutral global economy. It is precisely this gap that Global Gateway aims to reduce and at the same time ensure “that the international partners side with the EU,” as the documents state.
The member states have therefore decided that infrastructure support should be based on the “strategic interests of the EU”. Robust supply chains and reducing dependencies are given as examples. The Commission proposes Namibia as one of the first partner countries as the country has important minerals and could become an exporter of green hydrogen.
In Central Asia, on the other hand, the EU should become a “strategic player”, for example by participating in the construction of a hydroelectric power station in Tajikistan, which is intended to double the country’s energy production.
>> Read here: Confidential government report – Berlin warns of China’s Silk Road and calls for a European response
In Latin America, on the other hand, it shows what opportunities the EU has missed so far. A project to mine lithium, an important raw material for electric cars, could only be realized with the participation of Chinese companies.
The construction industry has high hopes for the project
Supporters of the European infrastructure offensive are now calling for the projects to be implemented quickly. SPD foreign politician Nils Schmid warns: “It must not remain the policy of announcements, Global Gateway must become visible.” The Green MEP Reinhard Bütikofer also urges that “companies that have long been ready are included”.
The US President wants a “global revival of democracy”.
(Photo: AP)
The construction industry in particular has high hopes for Global Gateway. “China’s state-owned construction companies have marginalized their European competitors in the African infrastructure market,” wrote the European foreign construction association EIC in a position paper. The Federation of German Industries (BDI) also campaigned vehemently for the initiative in Brussels.
Member States have now secured the establishment of an Economic Advisory Board to assist Global Gateway’s Board of Directors. In addition to the formal involvement of business associations, “informal contacts” with the bosses of “selected large corporations” are also planned. Because the aim of Global Gateway is also to “open up economic opportunities for private and state-owned companies”.
The next steps will include coordinating European investment projects with those of the USA. In June, at the G7 meeting at Schloss Elmau, President Joe Biden made a promise similar to that made by von der Leyen six months earlier: the USA wants to mobilize $200 billion in state and private funds to “promote health care, digital connectivity, equality and… Gender equality and climate and energy security” worldwide.
A “global revival of democracy” is what Biden has in mind. Big announcements that should finally be followed by action. In Europe and the USA.
More: Fear of the next trap – these are the China strategies in Berlin and Brussels