In the coming years, the EU will focus more and more of its energy and Official Development Assistance (ODA) on pursuing its Global Gateway Initiative, launched by the previous EU Commission as part of its „EU first“ approach. This initiative is a huge investment drive focusing on issues such as infrastructure, transport, energy and will rely on the European private sector for much of its delivery.

That in turn means that fragile states and those lower on the human development index – in which such massive investment projects are less appropriate – could well lose out. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development appears to have been largely sidelined, including the important principle of Leave No One Behind. So key issues such as gender equality and women’s empowerment don’t figure among the aims of the Global Gateway.

Global Gateway is unlikely to provide fair partnerships

At the event EU Development Policy Off-Track on 31 October in Vienna, Tanya Cox, Director of the European Confederation of NGOs working on sustainable development and international cooperation (CONCORD), gave an overview of what to expect from the new EU Commission’s international cooperation. She pointed out that some governments in (African) partner countries may prioritize economic partnerships. But what they are particularly looking for are fair partnerships, which the Eurocentric Global Gateway is unlikely to provide. Not least because it will increase the debt levels of partner countries to the EU, while many of the immediate benefits of the projects will also go to the EU. Moreover, civil society in the EU and partner countries is increasingly excluded from any decisions regarding the direction of international cooperation. The growing power of the (far) right in the European Parliament will make securing the next EU budget even more challenging in the next legislature.

Civil society must work together and focus on key issues

Nevertheless, the event ended on a promising note: Tanya Cox flagged that we in civil society must work together and focus on key issues in order to have more weight and bring back the people-centred approach to international cooperation. Werner Raza, director of the Austrian Foundation for Development Research (ÖFSE), reminded the more than 50 guests that the power of civil society should not be underestimated, as a democratic EU depends on its allies. Our director Lukas Wank underlined that the much needed transformative messages and tools of civil society already exist, but may need to be reframed or applied differently.

The event was jointly organized by Global Responsibility and its partner organization ÖFSE.

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Link

Event invitation: EU Development Policy Off-Track?

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