The Global Gateway: Striking a balance between EU interests and genuine partnerships
With the Global Gateway, the EU’s global strategy evolved from development to a strategic investment tool aimed at advancing the bloc’s economic, geopolitical and security interests, with a stronger role for the European private sector. ECDPM has been working throughout the entire process to help navigate this complex shift and strike the right balance between positioning the EU as a geostrategic force and fostering genuine, mutually beneficial partnerships.
This dossier covers ECDPM work on the Global Gateway in 2025, and will be updated to offer a comprehensive history of the Global Gateway and our contributions.
2025: Scaling up the Global Gateway
Rapidly changing dynamics of global economic governance, coupled with rising geopolitical tensions, have significantly impacted Europe’s economy and global standing. While it seeks to improve its competitiveness, Europe must develop its Global Gateway strategy to create a more comprehensive, coherent and competitive financial offer for the global partners it now clearly needs.
Global Gateway Forum 2025
ECDPM was the only think tank with multiple speakers at the Global Gateway Forum 2025.
- San Bilal moderated a session on 'Two Sides of the Same Coin: Energy Security and Industrial Competitiveness in the EU’s GG strategy', and took part in a roundtable on Africa's health sovereignty.
- Laure Blanchard-Brunac spoke on the panel ‘Looking at connectivity through a geostrategic lens’.
Scaling up Global Gateway high-level conference
ECDPM together with DG INTPA, DG TRADE and the Danish presidency of the European Council, hosted the second conference on export and development finance enhanced coordination to identify opportunities to scale up enhanced financial coordination, and gather input for the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF). The event proved a significant rise in interest for the topic, with 600 attendees - multiple times the first meeting in January 2024.
The conference was moderated by San Bilal, Andreas Klasen and Laure Blanchard Brunac.
We interviewed senior EU policymakers, public and private finance leaders, and development practitioners for candid discussions on the central challenge facing the Global Gateway, including the director general of EIB Global, the director of public affairs for Nokia, the CEO of Enabel, the deputy director generals for the European Commission’s DG GROW and DG TRADE, and more. Find a playlist of their responses below.
Closed door workshops and advising the European Commission
Meanwhile, in the framework of the TPSDE Facility, an advisory service of the European Commission, ECDPM organised the first of a series of four closed-door workshops to serve as a platform to discuss the political and technical merits, as well as the feasibility, of our initial recommendations for enhanced coordination between Export Credit Agencies (ECAs) and Development Finance Institutions (DFIs).
Publications
San Bilal and Andreas Klasen called 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.
Developing the idea further, San Bilal, Laure Blanchard-Brunac and Andreas Klasen proposed key elements to ensure greater involvement from the European private sector and public financial institutions under GG, while aligning with both the EU’s geostrategic and geoeconomic interests and the EU’s partner countries’ development priorities:
Previous work on the Global Gateway
This section will be expanded significantly. Until then, please find a selection of our Global Gateway work below
