Brussels announced on Wednesday that it wanted to mobilize up to 300 billion euros in public and private funds by 2027 in infrastructure projects around the world, a European response to the growing influence of China.
Fiber optic networks, transport infrastructure, Clean energy networks… The project, called Global Gateway, will bring together resources from the EU, the 27 Member States, European financial institutions and national development institutions, as well as private sector investments to better connect Europe with the rest of the world.
“Digital, health, climate, energy and transport sectors, as well as education and research, will be a priority,” said the Commission, which made sure not to mention China in its communication, even if its project competes with the “New Silk Roads” strategy.
Facing Beijing, Brussels intends to embody a more virtuous model in terms of human rights.
“We want projects that are implemented with a high level of transparency, good governance and quality,” said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at a press conference.
Beijing launched in 2013 its global investment strategy for the “New Silk Roads”, President Xi Jinping’s flagship project. Officially called “the Belt and Road”, it aims to develop land and sea infrastructure to better link China to Asia, Europe and Africa.
The Middle Empire has already committed nearly 140 billion dollars (124 billion euros) in investments, according to its official data.
A geopolitical Europe
Westerners see it as a tool for China’s influence on poor countries. They accuse Beijing of inciting emerging countries to over-indebtedness, criticize non-transparent tenders, suspect corrupt practices and denounce non-respect for human, social and environmental rights.
Global Gateway “is a new sign of the new determination of the European Union to establish itself as an economic, political, one day military player, on the international scene”, declared to AFP the MEP Bernard Guetta (group Renew), member of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the European Parliament.
“If there is Chinese fatigue today in Africa, it is not only because of the incredible working conditions in Chinese factories on the African continent. It is also because China shamelessly tries by indebtedness to tie the hands of the countries in which it invests, ”he added.
For Mikaela Gavas, from the American think tank Center for Global Development (CGD), the EU “may not be able to compete with China in quantitative terms, but it is ahead of the quality of investments”. It “must position itself as an antidote to dubious agreements”, argues the expert.
Global Gateway follows in the wake of a plan by the G7 countries to offer developing countries an alternative to the New Silk Roads, presented in June at the summit of the seven industrial powers in Cornwall (United Kingdom).
This “will allow us to compete with China where it is necessary, […] while working for the strategic autonomy of the EU, ”Polish MEP Radek Sikorski said on Twitter.
During her State of the Union address on September 15, Ursula von der Leyen had already mentioned this new strategy. “We are very good at financing roads. But it doesn’t make sense for Europe to build a perfect road between a Chinese-owned copper mine and a Chinese-owned port. We have to be smarter about these types of investments, ”she said.
With this funding, the EU also hopes to tackle the vulnerabilities of its global supply chains revealed by the pandemic.
It is also an opportunity for new contracts for firms from the Old Continent faced with gigantic needs. According to G20 estimates, the global infrastructure investment gap could reach 13 trillion euros by 2040.