Global Gateway Forum: Speech by High Representative / Vice-President Kaja Kallas

Global Gateway Forum: Speech by High Representative / Vice-President Kaja Kallas

Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is great to see so many Heads of State and Government from our partner countries gathered here in Brussels. Your presence is a tangible proof that Global Gateway is working - for us and also for you.

And this is particularly important if we think about the context in which Global Gateway projects are taking place, a volatile, complex and unpredictable world where the challenges are obvious: economic uncertainty; trade weaponisation and disruption; and geopolitical rivalry.

This makes Global Gateway a logical solution.

It means to get closer to our partners to create security, prosperity and growth together.

Connectivity is perhaps the most important pathway to this.

The European Union itself is evidence of this. After all, the EU is the world's most successful connectivity project.

Seven successive enlargements of the European Union have, every time, led to the integration of our markets, wider transport networks, and closer citizens and businesses.

These bonds have benefitted the European Union citizens. They are the foundation of the European Union's prosperity and strength.

And everything we know about connectivity, we pour into Global Gateway.

It is already the basis for digital connectivity via Medusa and Blue Raman submarine cables in the Mediterranean; a new Supercomputing Network for Artificial Intelligence in Latin America; world trade for centuries to come, via a corridor linking Mumbai with Marseille; and the first transcontinental rail link in Africa. This will secure and reduce the time of access to Critical Raw Materials and support local populations.

Global Gateway is also an ambitious investment strategy and evidence of Team Europe working together.

As President von der Leyen announced this morning, Global Gateway has already overshot the €300 billion target by 2027. The EU now aims at €400 billion by 2027.

In addition to the economic investments, it is also helping to build resilience in our partners.

For example, no country today, let alone a continent, should still be importing 99% of its vaccines or 90% of its medicines.

Through Global Gateway, the EU is contributing to durable local vaccine and medicine manufacturing, and affordable access to the end products in Africa.

We had a global pandemic. We know what it felt like, the immense damage it caused to our economies, the millions of lives lost.

If every country is equipped from the start to prevent disease spreading beyond its borders, we limit the risk of another global catastrophe, by learning from the last.

And who knows, maybe [what] the next medical breakthrough will be or where it will come from? A new vaccine for malaria or tuberculosis could easily be born on the African continent, counting on European support.

This will take time, but we are in it for the long run, with lasting long-term investment. We are not looking for quick wins.

But Global Gateway is not only an offer. It is also a choice. A choice of partners, of values, of principles, of a world vision, of sustainable long-term development.

Our resources are scarce. And we want to use them to build strong partnerships who share our vision for a more resilient and better future.

I have been to South East Asia three times this year, and the message I hear is for more regional integration.

In Europe we know a thing or two about this. This is why we are well placed to support the development of the regional power grid our ASEAN partners are creating.

We also have to promote Global Gateway to our citizens and our businesses. That is why the EU will eventually need to concentrate its efforts on those close to us, who believe in what we stand for, and share the ideals we want to project.

This means projects that support local communities and add value on the ground, where European companies can show the best they can do and learn through cooperating with local companies.

Global Gateway is not a tool to feed our competitors' companies and business interest. This is also very important to stress. It is a business and investment offer to our partners, where our interests have to match.

Global Gateway projects should create and sustain open transport corridors and supply chains; develop shock-resistant markets; give us all energy security and access to the critical materials; support conflict prevention while improving global mobility via transport and communication infrastructure.

Of course, this does not discount classic development projects in countries where Global Gateway is still not an option.

But even then, our engagement will always aim at creating the conditions for this to happen.

Cabo Verde - here today - is a good example of this. An island of half a million inhabitants that has now become a champion of Global Gateway.

With Global Gateway, every cable, every school, every renewable energy power plant is a statement of who we are and what our vision of the world is: shared growth, at a time when many are only concerned about their own.

Global Gateway is Europe's brand in the world. An alternative offer. it is our invitation to you, to shape the future together.

Thank you.

Link to the video: https://audiovisual.ec.europa.eu/en/media/video/I-278413