Description
This paper challenges two prevailing views on the Global Gateway, launched in 2021 by the EU to significantly boost investment in developing countries : the first, fostered by EU official discourse, has hailed it as a paradigmatic shift in the EU’s external action, with the EU proclaiming to move away from donor-recipient dynamics towards partnerships of equals; the second, advanced in academic work, has depicted it as a powerful instrument of geopolitics, with the EU seeking to counter China’s overwhelming presence in Africa. Drawing on research into the EU policy-making process and international development discourses and relying on unpublished primary sources and confidential interviews, this paper posits that the launch of the Global Gateway, in fact, reflects the profound reconceptualization that has occurred in the EU’s relations with the developing world in the second decade of this century. Specifically, it marks a further step in the ‘financialisation of EU development policy’, with the increased use of blended finance to leverage European investment and spur African sustainable growth, and a convenient opportunity to advance the ‘Team Europe’ approach, the aim for the EU being that of enhancing EU global visibility and impact. Furthermore, it is argued that that the antagonization of China, evoked by the political arm (i.e. President and Commissioners) was ignored if not resisted by the administrative arm of the European Commission (i.e. DG IntPa), and that the limited involvement of private and public actors in ‘partner countries’ in the planning and implementation of the initial Global Gateway flagship projects did not significantly preoccupy EU policy makers: evidence, indeed, suggests that both instances were seen as possible hindrance in the gradual transformation of the EU’s development policy, which has to increasingly reconcile the expected promotion of human and social development with a more contentious emphasis on private sector development.
