Julio Gálvez and Dani Rovirosa |
Brussels (EFE).- This week’s summit between the European Union (EU) and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac) has allowed to focus on the Global Gateway initiative, with which the community club intends to promote the development of infrastructures in Latin America, Southeast Asia and Africa, in addition to competing with the Chinese New Silk Road.
The EU will invest 45,000 million until 2027
The European Commission (EC) took advantage of the summit to convey to Latin America and the Caribbean that the institutions and Member States of the EU will invest 45,000 million euros in the region until 2027 through Global Gateway, in areas such as raw materials, technological infrastructures, clean energy or health.
“More than 135 projects are already on the starting line, from clean hydrogen to critical raw materials, from the expansion of high-throughput data cable networks to the production of the most advanced RNA vaccines,” EC President Ursula von der Leyen said at an event this week.
The president of the Community Executive stressed that Europe and the Latin American and Caribbean region will have to “agree together which sectors and value chains to prioritize”, as well as the best way to promote these investments with technical support, standards and capacities.
Programa Global Gateway “
Von der Leyen insisted that the Global Gateway program “not only has the size to make a difference”, but also represents a “new approach” when it comes to investing in large infrastructure projects, since European investments will focus on “creating local value chains” so that the “added value stays in Latin America and the Caribbean”.
The Commission President cited clean hydrogen and the industry of critical raw materials as examples of areas with investment potential in which the EU and the Latin American and Caribbean region have “a common interest and shared ideas”.
Despite the policy optimism, Jacob Kirkegaard of the German Marshall Fund think tank believes that the Global Gateway is not a solid alternative to China’s New Silk Road and cannot compete with that Beijing initiative.
He affirms that the European Union’s strategy is not having the concrete results necessary to be “a serious competitor” to the New Silk Road.
For Kirkegaard, the “problem” is that the community club “usually does not want to lend” so that the projects that low-income countries want to build can be carried out.
However, the analyst states that Global Gateway will continue to exist in the medium and long term, but “mainly as an ethical position” of the community club.
“It won’t really make infrastructure cheaper for emerging markets or reduce the influence of China’s New Silk Road,” he says of Global Gateway.
In Kirkegaard’s opinion, the impact of China’s New Silk Road will diminish “due to less Chinese willingness to finance it, not EU actions.”
“The infrastructure of the European Union will continue to be financed mainly through the European Investment Bank throughout the world,” he says.
“Global Gateway is about China”
It also indicates that the Global Gateway is not an alternative to Russia’s influence in America, Africa or Asia in the context of the invasion of Ukraine, since Moscow “does not finance infrastructure; only mercenaries.”
“Global Gateway is about China,” he notes.
As for Latin America, he considers that it is not “really” a priority region for Global Gateway, since this initiative also seeks to “generate growth” among the neighboring countries of the European Union “to reduce migration.”
He affirms that the summit between the EU and Celac has not given a boost to Global Gateway.
“I have not seen a single strategic investment agreement concluded and ready to go. A long-term talk is everything”, he comments on the summit results for Global Gateway.
Carlos Malamud, a researcher at the Elcano Royal Institute, believes that the contact between the EU and Latin America will remain even after the end of his term of office of the high representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs, the Spanish Josep Borrell, who has promoted the relationship between the countries of both continents.
However, he doubts that the summit can be described as “successful”.
“The difficulties that conditioned the tone of the final declaration, for example, on the issue of Ukraine, persist,” he assumes.
The EU did not manage to get the leaders of Latin America and the Caribbean to condemn the invasion, but rather the text reflects the “deep concern” of the heads of state and government over the conflict.
“If what you really want is for Latin America to be an important ally of the EU, this implies that you have to change Latin American perceptions about the war in Ukraine,” says Malamud.