Who profits from the Global Gateway? The EU’s new strategy for development cooperation

This new report by Counter Balance and Eurodad, and supported by Oxfam, analyses in detail the Global Gateway and focuses on 40 of its flagship projects - notably in energy and climate (including raw materials), digital, and health sectors. It dives deep into the question: is the Global Gateway advancing the EU's foreign policy and corporate interests at the expense of real development in its partner countries?

As a starting point of her new mandate at the head of the European Commission, President Ursula Von der Leyen wrote “The third strand of our economic foreign policy is partnerships and investing together in our interests and our partners through Global Gateway, our initiative to invest in infrastructure projects worldwide”.

This illustrates the current perception of the Global Gateway strategy among the political leadership of the EU, namely that of a central element of the EU’s foreign economic policy, pursuing both the EU’s interests and those of its partners.

Launched in 2021 by the European Commission, it has been promoted as the EU’s ‘positive offer’ to countries in the Global South.

It is framed as a sustainable, values-based, and transparent alternative to China’s growing geopolitical and economic presence in the world through its Belt and Road Initiative. The goal is to mobilise up to EUR 300 billion of investment between 2021 and 2027.

The Global Gateway strategy supports investment in five priority areas: the digital sector, climate and energy, transport, health, and education and research. It offers physical infrastructure such as subsea cables, transport corridors, and renewable energy on the one hand, and it promotes a reform agenda to create an ‘enabling business environment’ to facilitate European investments on the other.

However, on closer examination it becomes clear that there are many concerning issues with the Global Gateway.

Those concerns are based on the fact that Global Gateway’s main source of funding is the EU’s development cooperation policy and budget, whose primary mission, according to the EU’s founding treaties, is “the reduction and, in the long term, the eradication of poverty”.

This report attempts to answer this central question: is the Global Gateway prioritising the EU’s foreign policy goals and its own economic interests over positive development outcomes in its partner countries?

This report builds on previous Counter Balance and Eurodad research and provides a timely and comprehensive analysis of the Global Gateway, including its financing, governance, and latest projects. It analyses whether the projects rolled out so far – notably in energy and climate (including raw materials), digital, and health sectors – correspond with the EU’s development objectives and external action principles, such as the eradication of poverty and inequality, protection of human rights, and sustainable development.

It focuses on a detailed analysis of 40 projects falling under the Global Gateway (listed at Annex 3), many of which are categorised as Global Gateway ‘flagship’ projects (all listed at Annexes 1 & 2), covering different regions and sectors and chosen as illustrative examples. These projects were also chosen due to the availability of more detailed information and literature from external sources (academia, media, civil society organisations, and other stakeholders).
In 25 of the 40 Global Gateway projects explored, at the time of writing the report at least one European company benefited from the project (see Annex 3). The companies benefitting include large companies such as Siemens, A.P. Moller Group, SUEZ, and BioNTech. The presence of European companies in the majority of analysed projects points to a high risk that the Global Gateway prioritises the promotion of opportunities for European businesses in the Global South over development objectives such as poverty reduction.

What started as an EU branding strategy has grown into a central external action approach, increasingly influencing other key EU policies, such as the Green Deal Industrial Plan and the Critical Raw Materials Act. At the same time, the EU’s actions to implement the Global Gateway risk contradicting its own commitments to upholding high standards of human, social, and workers’ rights, transparency, creating equal partnerships instead of dependencies, and offering a democratic investment agenda.

Watch the launch event:

Read the full report in English | Spanish version | French version

Read the executive summary in English (Spanish | French)