Background

The rapidly changing dynamics of European competitiveness, global economic governance, and rising geopolitical tensions, significantly impact Europe’s trade, investment and development landscape. This calls for greater coordination and complementarity of EU external financial tools, in particular export finance and development finance, to contribute to the EU’s ambitions to mobilise public and private sustainable investments to implement Global Gateway EU’s external investment strategy.

There are significant opportunities for enhanced cooperation between export finance and development finance despite traditionally having evolved in two parallel universes. The institutions rely on similar or complementary tools (in particular, loans and guarantees, grants, equity investments). Furthermore, development finance institutions (DFIs), public development banks (PDBs), export credit agencies (ECAs) and development agencies are engaged - to some extent - in similar countries and often operate in the same priority sectors, including energy, infrastructure, digital, and health. While there are concrete examples where they have cooperated, these remain scarce. Enhanced coordination between these actors can help to realise the ambitions of the Global Gateway strategy and the aim of effectively moving the strategy from start-up to scale-up. This is particularly important in a period of increasing challenges resulting from competition from other providers of official finance – both emerging players who benefit from not being bound by the same international rules, but also OECD countries which have implemented a “whole-of-government approach”.

Objectives

This second high-level will take stock of the progress made since the January 2024 conference on export and development finance cooperation, identify opportunities to scale up enhanced financial coordination, and gather input for the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF).

The event will be co-organized by DG INTPA, DG TRADE and the Danish presidency of the European Council. Other Commission Directorate Generals (GROW, MENA, ENEST…), the EIB and other relevant institutions will be closely associated. It will bring together ECAs, PDBs, DFIs, development agencies and the private sector, including key players from the industrial, services and banking sector operating as well as private sector representative institutions in the EU and partner countries, to fully realise the potential of the Global Gateway strategy and bring together the development and competitiveness agendas for international partnerships

The event will provide a timely opportunity to assess how the EU can further enhance coordination between its external financial tools. It will focus on shaping the design of new tools and securing broad support for an EU-level instrument to promote competitiveness and development under Global Gateway, in particular in the context of the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF). Strengthening the links between the different actors and EU Member States is essential to advancing the EU’s ambitions under the Global Gateway strategy, ensuring that Europe fully mobilizes public and private sustainable investments to promote both development in partner countries and EU external competitiveness and geopolitical objectives.

This high-level event will shape strategic guidance and reaffirm the EU’s commitment to aligning export and development finance for greater impact. While progress has been made in bridging export and development finance, a systemic and politically backed shift is now needed to move beyond isolated initiatives including integrating EU private sector interests into the design and delivery of external action.

The conference is strategically scheduled in the immediate run-up to the Global Gateway Forum (9–10 October 2025). As such, it represents a key opportunity to provide critical input to the Forum. The outcomes of the conference will contribute to expanding and shaping the Global Gateway financial toolbox, including by offering a roadmap for the role of Export Credit Agencies, in close coordination with development finance actors. The conference will also help to strengthen the role of Export Credit Agencies as a central interface for engaging the European private sector, while reinforcing their international competitiveness and enhancing the EU’s overall external investment capacity.