In late March the European Parliament adopted a report titled ‘Global Gateway – past impacts and future orientation’. This is the Parliament’s first report on the EU’s flagship investment strategy in support to the bloc’s geostrategic ambitions. The report set out clear demands to guide EU actions, and it is a timely contribution in light of the current negotiations on the next EU budget (2028-2034), notably the Global Europe Instrument and the use of public funds to promote private sector investment in the Global South.

Members of the European Parliament echoed key civil society concerns and demands on how the strategy has been designed and implemented. 

The report: 

• points out the lack of clarity and transparency regarding the initiative’s track record on funding. It emphasises the need for greater transparency and effective monitoring of Global Gateway projects and their impact in partner countries; including calls for more details on projects and their funding. 
• calls for a shift from an overly centralised, top-down approach to Global Gateway project planning to a demand-driven approach that responds to the needs of countries in the Global South. MEPs stressed the need to enhance partner country ownership by clarifying project selection and success criteria. 
• stresses that all financial institutions involved in implementation are expected to apply the highest standards of transparency and accountability in their projects, to demonstrate the development impact of their investments, to avoid practices that increase debt vulnerabilities in partner countries, and to align their financing with equitable and locally beneficial development outcomes.
• includes a demand that investments do not exacerbate countries’ debt burdens. Global Gateway projects should avoid worsening debt or creating new ‘debt-traps’; urging the EU and its Member States to reduce and alleviate the debt burden on developing countries, particularly those in the Global South, by supporting global debt relief and debt restructuring. 
• calls for respect for development effectiveness principles and the necessity of integrating and ensuring policy coherence for development in the Global Gateway.

• calls to improve the governance structure of the Global Gateway, including a stronger role for the European Parliament and more consultation and participation of civil society, including through the Global Gateway Civil Society and Local Authorities advisory platform.

Yet, we regret that the report is still weak in its positioning against some of the premises behind the EU’s Global Gateway strategy. For instance, MEPs missed a critical opportunity to question the transactional approach to development cooperation reflected in the strategy. In other words, there is a need for stronger push back on arrangements that are principally guided by the EU’s own strategic interests, as a report on the Global Gateway by Eurodad and partners shows. In the face of massive aid budget cuts, including from EU institutions, an approach to development cooperation that prioritises EU interests is at odds with commitments to development effectiveness principles.  

The road ahead 

Three key opportunities can be highlighted in the coming months. Firstly, Cyprus, the current holder of the rotating presidency of the EU’s Council of member states, has put the Global Gateway on its Presidency agenda. Member states can use this opportunity to pay careful attention to concerns that have been raised, including by civil society, and ensure that the Global Gateway is made more transparent, accountable and development-oriented. 

Secondly, the negotiations on the next EU budget will provide an opportunity to better define how the Global Gateway will actually contribute to the EU development objective of reducing poverty and inequalities, in line with EU treaties. 

Finally, later this year, the European Commission will also carry out an evaluation of the Global Gateway strategy, after almost five years since it was launched. 

Eurodad and its partners are ready to provide inputs into all these processes.