The European Commission announced a plan on Wednesday (December 1) to invest 300 billion euros in global infrastructure, digital and climate projects by 2027 to strengthen European supply chains, promote EU trade, and help combat climate change.
Known as the “Global Gateway”, the plan is seen as the EU’s response to China’s “One Belt One Road” initiative, and will focus on digitalization, health, climate, energy and transportation sectors, as well as education and research.
EU funds come in the form of grants, loans and guarantees from EU institutions, governments, as well as EU financial institutions and the National Development Bank.
The European Commission said in a statement: “The EU will provide financing on fair and favorable terms to limit the risk of debt distress.”
China has launched the “One Belt One Road” project in 2013 to promote trade links with the rest of the world, and has invested heavily in infrastructure development in dozens of countries around the world.
But EU officials privately stated that the financing conditions provided by Beijing under its initiative are often unfavorable or opaque, causing some poorer countries, especially African countries, to rely on China through debt.
“Without proper transparency, good governance and high-standard projects may be wrongly selected or designed, incomplete, or used to encourage corruption. This will not only hinder growth and deprive local communities of the benefits, but will eventually create dependence. Sex, which limits the decision-making ability of countries,” the committee said.
The committee stated that the Global Gateway Program aims to establish contacts with other countries without creating dependencies.
“It will focus on physical infrastructure-such as fiber optic cables, clean transportation corridors, clean power transmission lines-to strengthen digital, transportation and energy networks,” the committee said.
“It will also provide an enabling environment for ensuring project delivery by providing attractive investment and business-friendly terms of trade, regulatory integration, standardization, supply chain integration and financial services,” it said.
The European Commission stated that by helping other countries, the EU will also promote its own interests and strengthen its supply chain. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the fragility of the supply chain has become apparent.
The European Commission said: “This will help open up more trade opportunities for the EU economy, of which about 38 million jobs depend on international trade.”
