EU ministers leave Global Gateway board seats empty despite transparency complaints

by · EUobserver

The EU’s Global Gateway will be part of the ‘innovative’ financial instruments needs to finance development, says Josef Sikela, EU commissioner for external partnerships (Photo: European Commission)

EU and the World

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By Benjamin Fox,

A board meeting of the EU’s Global Gateway programme had to be postponed because of a lack of interest from member states, weeks after ministers complained about a lack of transparency with the programme.

EU officials say that a June meeting of the Global Gateway board had to be cancelled after almost none of the ministers representing the EU-27 said that they would show up. EU international partnerships commissioner Jozef Sikela has since postponed it until the autumn.

It was a similar story at a previous board meeting in April. The chairs of the European Parliament’s foreign affairs, international trade and development committees, David McAllister, Bernd Lange, and Barry Andrews all attended. But only one EU national minister showed up. So, did a single EU commissioner, who then made his excuses and left after an hour, EUobserver understands.

Initially set up in 2022 with a mandate to deliver more than €300bn in investment to infrastructure projects in developing countries, and at least €100bn to Africa, the EU wants to put Global Gateway at the heart of its external policy in the coming years.

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The EU’s Global Gateway will be part of the ‘innovative’ financial instruments needs to finance development, says Josef Sikela, EU commissioner for external partnerships (Photo: European Commission)

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Author Bio

Benjamin Fox is our trade and geopolitics editor. His reporting has also been published in the Guardian, the East African, Euractiv, Private Eye and Africa Confidential, among others. He is based in Nairobi, Kenya, although he often reports from London.

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