In the most developed countries, we are annoyed that we lose a few minutes of mobile connection, that the train is late or that an appointment at the health center is postponed. It doesn’t occur to us to ask our neighbors if they have drinking water or electricity at home for reading or studying when it gets dark. We forget the connection between infrastructure and aspects such as security, mobility, cohesion, equality, productivity or economic growth. Everything that makes up an essential part of the daily well-being of millions of people.
However, for the vast majority of the world’s population, the reality is very different. The UN predicts that by 2030 there will be two billion people without regular access to basic infrastructure such as drinking water, sanitation and electricity. The following calculation helps us imagine the financial scale of the challenge. The Asian Development Bank points out that around 1.5 trillion euros will need to be invested in Asia by 2030 if the region wants to maintain levels of economic growth, address challenges such as poverty and respond effectively to climate change. Calculations like these are repeated in other regions and lead to two conclusions. First, the infrastructure gap will continue to grow. Secondly, the number of countries that have the financial capacity for this type of investment is very limited.
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In 2021, the G-7 finally recognized the scale of the problem and the cost of its impact. He also saw a good opportunity to revive his fading importance on the international stage. The possibility of new health crises, the progressive weakening of supply chains, the challenge of facing recurrent and extreme environmental disasters and, more generally, a scenario of increasing instability encouraged the creation of the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGII). the joint commitment to invest 600 billion in energy, digital, health and environmental infrastructure by 2027.
The Global Gateway emerged as a result of this agreement. It is the European response through a renewed effort of investment and alliances. In society it is usually presented as a European formula to compete with the powerful Chinese New Silk Road. In fact, something much more valuable is hidden: a new recipe with extraordinary transformative potential, but one that relies on five ingredients that don’t fit together so easily. Firstly, that the EU’s geostrategic proposal is consistent with the needs and preferences of our partner countries. Second, that the key actors involved – foreign policy, international cooperation and the private sector – have common routines, interests and goals. Thirdly, that the Europeans themselves show, through their endless list of embassies, agencies and banks, that they want to work better together and know how to work together. Fourth, that our investment proposal; A mosaic of financial contributions of different types is able to mobilize funds with the same effectiveness as other world powers. Finally, it confirms that it is a values-based formula that respects principles such as good governance and transparency, as well as the EU’s commitments to the development agenda.
There are still many open questions to be clarified, only a few know the strategy and some of those few show recurring skepticism and describe it as a mere renaming of what the EU has been doing for years. Yet despite the enormous opacity that continues to characterize the Global Gateway’s progress, progress is visible in key areas. For example, better knowledge of the needs in partner countries; an appropriate correlation between the first projects presented, the priorities of the Global Gateway and the relevant EU policies; the establishment of the Business Advisory Group and the successful EU-Latin America and Caribbean Summit. Finally, a major Global Gateway event took place last week at which European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen was expected to confirm that there was a genie in the lamp. Or to put it another way: the Global Gateway formula works.
Spain does not have a large international development bank and, what is even more worrying, is that in some of its foreign activities there is a deeply demoralizing tendency towards immobility, unable to concentrate and enliven the country’s technical and financial potential.
Now it’s time to get to work. I emphasize that we are here because the Global Gateway is not a Brussels monopoly, but an effort in which we all participate. And here the big question arises: How does Spain participate in the Global Gateway?
The Spanish case is paradoxical. Together with Portugal, we are the natural interlocutors between the EU and Latin America, a region for which the Global Gateway fits like a glove. The reunification through the EU-LAC summit in July and the resumption of relations were staged in forums and meetings with notable participation from countries, financiers and companies. Something that suggests one of those moments that shouldn’t be missed. Unfortunately we’re caught lame. Unlike other European countries, especially France and Germany, Spain lacks the infrastructure and the institutional and financial forces to guide, promote and accompany this area of work. We do not have a large international development bank, and what is even more worrying is that in some foreign activities there is a deeply demoralizing tendency towards immobility, unable to unite and enliven the country’s great capacity, technical and financial potential continues to put us at a disadvantage compared to our surrounding countries.
The Global Gateway offers Spain a double opportunity. On the one hand, actively contributing to the needs and obligations of development and reconnecting the EU-Spain connection with other regions, in particular with Latin America, in a more stable way, giving it continuity and a horizon significantly different from that of recent years, characterized by such a sleepy presence. On the other hand, the modernization of a part, even a small part, of Spanish foreign policy should be promoted. Open a space with a new and differentiated identity, convinced of its ambition to find innovative solutions and join forces in an area that must not cease to grow in importance for our own good and that of those who come.
Carlos Buhigas He is the founder of Col-lab, a consulting firm specializing in Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
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