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Global Gateway strategy: our contribution through the France and Europe teams
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On the 25th and 26th of October, the Global Gateway Forum brings together leaders in Brussels to discuss issues relating to global investment in infrastructure, including the challenges faced by the public and private sectors, as well as the best practices and lessons learned. On this occasion, Expertise France looks back at its involvement, within the France and Europe teams, in this Global Gateway strategy.
In December 2021, Mrs Ursula Van der Leyen launched the "Global Gateway", a new European strategy aimed at developing "smart, clean and secure digital, energy and transport links and strengthening health, education and research systems worldwide". Expertise France, a resolutely European agency, remains committed to working with its French and European partners to support French and European strategic priorities. Its European roots enable it to deploy its expertise and experience on all continents and to continue to mobilise players as part of an integrated and inclusive approach. This is reflected at national level through its involvement within the AFD Group, but also at European level where the agency plays a decisive role in the "Team Europe" approach, notably through its current chairmanship of the Practitioners' Network (PN).
Technical cooperation: at the heart of Europe's added value in terms of international partnerships
The PN and its Members are key actors in the implementation of the Global Gateway. Development cooperation plays a key role, being one of the core elements of Europe’s added value for inclusive and effective international partnerships.
We, as Practitioners are committed to ensure that we provide the most effective European cooperation to accompany partner countries in their efforts to achieve the SDGs. We bring our European expertise, assuring high-impact and more sustainable Global Gateway investments, in a Team Europe approach, through:
- Identification and implementation of impactful bankable programs;
- Participating in policy dialogues, promoting equal partnerships around shared values with our partner countries;
- Public Technical Cooperation;
- Strengthening regulatory, policy and business environment, and reinforcing capacities at central and decentralised level.
AFD Group and Europe : Together for sustainable partnerships
Driven by shared convictions, AFD Group and the European Union are working hand in hand to enhance the impact of their financing in the field and the effectiveness of development aid. Their cooperation has grown stronger over time, through ongoing dialog, by producing joint studies that contribute to the European debate, and by co-financing joint initiatives.
Today, AFD Group is mobilizing to meet the challenges of the 2021-2027 European programming and to add a more strategic dimension to its partnership with the European Union.
Through its participation in Team Europe initiatives and a number of flagship Global Gateway projects, AFD Group is helping to unite European cooperation around projects with a high transformational impact. “Coordination between the Group’s three organizations is crucial,” underscored Koen Doens. “Backed by its range of tools and multi-sector expertise, AFD Group helps stimulate investment and attract the private sector to our partner countries while offering technical assistance to support these dynamics.”
This is the model the European Union wants to offer its partners: a “360-degree” solution integrating financing tools (loans, grants, and guarantees) and support measures (technical assistance, promoting high social and environmental standards, etc.).
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