Episode 40: EU Global Gateway - development or profit?

EU Watchdog Radio

Corporate Europe Observatory and Counter Balance

News, Politics

5 • 1 Ratings

🗓️ 21 November 2022

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The EU Global Gateway has been pitched as the EU’s response to the economic, climate and energy crises engulfing the planet. Yet over a year after the European Commission launched the Gateway, it is still shrouded in secrecy. It is unclear if any new money is actually being made available for international development through the Gateway, or whether the strategy is mainly a PR exercise. Worse still, the Gateway may serve as an excuse to transfer development resources over to the private secto...

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening.
0:06.0	You're listening to EU, man on the moon, motion.
0:28.4	You're listening to EU Watchdog Radio. Hello and welcome to EU Watchdog Radio.
0:32.3	I'm Paul Creeney from Counterbalance, a non-profit organisation holding European public finance in Europe to account.
0:40.3	The European Union likes to present itself as a benevolent global force concerned with the food, climate, debt and over-crisis affecting countries across the world.
0:52.3	European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen
0:56.0	presented the EU Global Gateway
0:57.8	as a response to these crises in December 2021.
1:02.5	In theory, this new strategy will support infrastructure projects worldwide
1:06.7	which enhance global connectivity.
1:09.9	The reality could be very different. The Global Gateway itself
1:14.0	may be little more than a PR exercise. Worse still, it could be an excuse to hand
1:19.8	precious development money over to the private sector. The lack of transparency around
1:25.5	the Gateway makes it impossible to know for sure.
1:29.5	The Global Gateway also risks using development funds to support the EU's geopolitical goals,
1:36.8	rather than fighting poverty.
1:39.1	The strategy is frequently pitched as an alternative to China's Belt and Road Initiative,
1:44.0	based on so-called
1:45.0	European values, yet these claims are yet to be substantively backed up. The Commission may be
1:51.4	subjugating international development for real policy. In today's episode of EU Watchdog
1:57.2	Radio, we will speak with Fawar Sial, Senior Policy Officer for Development Finance at the European Network on Debt and Development.
2:04.6	Fawar will explain what exactly the Global Gateway is, what the Commission claims it is for, and whether these claims stand up to scrutiny.
	...

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