On March 1, the twenty-seven must adopt a first list of 87 projects, all over the world, which will benefit from this community initiative presented at the end (Brussels, European office)
We will have to give shape to the project presented by the European Commission, the 1 er December 2021, without which he could get lost in the Brussels machine. Global Gateway (“World Portal”) – This is his name, still unknown to the general public – aims to respond to “new silk roads” with which Beijing, since 2013, has been witnessing its influence all over the world with blows ten billion euros in investments in ports, roads and other infrastructure.
“This geopolitical project”, explains Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the commission, aims to mobilize, by 2027, 300 billion euros in public and private funds, including 153 billion community money ( 18 billion subsidies, 135 billion in the form of guarantees to loans from the European Investment Bank, for example), for infrastructure projects outside the European Union (EU), from Western Balkans to Africa , passing through South America or Asia.
More than a year after its launch, an important first step should be taken on Wednesday 1 er March: the twenty-seven should indeed adopt the first list of projects that will benefit from the initiative European. There are eighty-seven, the construction of an underwater electric cable between Georgia and Romania to that of an underwater fiber optic cable that will connect North Africa to France, Cyprus , Italy, Spain and Portugal, including new wind and solar capacities in Bangladesh, the extension of the port of Banjul, in Gambia, or the development of a fleet of electric bus in Costa Rica.
“a narrative is missing”
France has notably campaigned for Global Gateway to finance the construction of a second airport in Djibouti, where China is already very established. Germany, for its part, wants to promote the production of “green” hydrogen, in Morocco or Vietnam for example, which it wishes to import in the future to achieve its decarbonation objectives. There are also several projects – in Chile, Argentina or in the Congo Republic – relating to these critical raw materials, such as rare earths or lithium, which the EU buys today in China.
“The list is too long, judges a diplomat. We do not find the” new Suez canal “.” “Number of these projects have not yet the geopolitical wingspan they should have, adds Michael Clauss, German ambassador to the EU. But the important thing is to launch Global Gateway in an emergency. And to do better afterwards. “Otherwise he will disappear before having seen the light of day, as was the Case for a comparable strategy that the Commission launched in 2018, at the time in the direction of Asia.
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