Today at the 3rd European Union (EU) and the African Union (AU) Ministerial Meeting, both continental institutions and their member states reviewed the considerable progress in the implementation of the joint commitments taken at the 2022 Summit and of the Global Gateway Europe-Africa Investment package. Team Europe combined resources and expertise to develop 99 Initiatives with Africa in strategic sectors such as green energy, transport corridors, digitalisation, health systems and resources. Between 2023 and 2025, the EU and its Member States have also adopted 138 Global Gateway flagship projects to deliver on the Summit commitments.
European Commissioner for International Partnerships Jozef Síkela said: “The futures of Europe and Africa are tightly interlinked – together, we face many challenges, but the potential for our cooperation is even greater. We focus on jobs, skills, education, entrepreneurship, digital access, transport and clean energy and we deliver. At the Ministerial we discussed this progress. The report listing the projects we are working on clearly proves that together we are turning our potential into new and real opportunities for businesses and people on both continents, with lasting impact.”
Here are a few key areas of transformative operations:
To upscale the transport network, an essential artery for efficient flow of goods, services and people, thereby fostering Africa’s regional and global trade engagement, Global Gateway has identified twelve priority corridors. Investments have for instance allowed the economic Lobito corridor linking Angola, Zambia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, linking the Lobito Port on Angola’s Atlantic Coast to the resource-rich regions of DRC and Zambia. With over 1,800 kilometres of railway infrastructure, the corridor serves as a critical path which will facilitate and lower the transit time and cost of goods among those three countries, such as agricultural and industrial products, as well as critical raw materials.
In the energy sector, the Africa-Europe Green Energy Initiative (AEGEI) has advanced on equitable energy transition with a focus on solar, wind, hydropower, and green hydrogen production. With over €20 billion pledged so far under the Team Europe approach, of which €3.4 billion by the EU, AEGEI is on course to support the deployment of at least 50 GW of additional renewable energy generation capacity, providing at least 100 million people in Africa with access to electricity by 2030.
The Zambia-Tanzania-Kenya (ZTK) Interconnector is another Global Gateway flagship project that combines hard infrastructure and institutional capacity-building. By interconnecting the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP) and the Eastern African Power Pool (EAPP), the project is designed to enhance regional electricity trade, mitigate hydrology risks linked to Zambia’s reliance on hydropower, and improve energy security.
In 2024 European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa launched the Scaling up Renewables in Africa campaign to mobilise global financing for renewable energy projects in Africa, bringing together development banks, private investors, and multilateral institutions with the objective of unlocking more investments.
To address the continental’s digital divide, Global Gateway and Team Europe have invested in digital connectivity infrastructure, expanding affordable internet access and improving digital literacy. For instance, the 11.700 km long Blue Raman submarine cable is an intercontinental project stretching from Europe to India with intermedia landings in the Middle East and Eastern Africa. It creates a high speed and diversified data connectivity along the EU-Africa-India digital corridor, to be operational by end 2025. The total estimated cost of the project amounts to €400 million.
In an increasingly interconnected world, the strategic partnership between the AU and EU on Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) has emerged as a pivotal force for development and prosperity on both continents. An illustration of cooperation in this field is the Africa-EU Space Partnership Programme Key milestones reached are the establishment of the African Space Agency in 2023 and the election of the African Space Council 2024.
In the field of entrepreneurship and business financing, the focus was on making it easier to start and grow a business in Africa with for instance the €4 billion Team Europe Initiative ‘Investing in Young Businesses in Africa’ (IYBA). It brings together the EU, 10 EU MS, the EIB, the EBRD, and European development financial institutions to support access to concessional finance and technical skills improvement for early-stage businesses of young entrepreneurs and SMEs, with a strong focus on women entrepreneurs.
Also, the Global Green Bond Initiative (GGBI) is a Global Gateway flagship initiative that sets out a comprehensive, three-pillar approach to accelerate the flow of green finance to low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). It is expected to become operational in the second half of 2025.
Since 2022, initiatives about health priorities agreed at the 2022 Summit have been launched and are being implemented, for a total of more than € 2 billion. The EU is a key player in this move. With substantial financial investments, the EU and eight EU Member States totalling approximately € 1.9 billion, the Manufacturing and Access to Vaccines, Medicines, and Health Technologies in Africa (MAV+) initiative illustrates a comprehensive effort to bolster Africa’s self-reliance in health product manufacturing to ensure that the continent will achieve its goal of producing 60% of the vaccines by 2040.
The two Commissions stressed their engagement to contribute further to the implementation of the Global Gateway Europe-Africa Investment package.
In the margins of the Ministerial, a specific event devoted to civil society and youth took place. The objective was to strengthen the critical people-to-people dimension of the EU-Africa partnership and produce CSO-Youth recommendations on prosperity, people, peace and security and multilateralism.
Background
As a critical partner of Africa, the EU will mobilise €150 billion for Africa under Global Gateway. The Global Gateway Africa-Europe Investment Package aims to crowd in public and private investment in 11 strategic sectors thanks to innovative financing mechanisms. The objective is to narrow the investment gap and de-risk investment mobilisation in Africa.
The Ministerial marks the beginning of new political mandates at both the EU and the AU and is an important moment of renewed partnership between both continents. The ministerial had dedicated roundtables to discuss the objectives of prosperity, people, peace and security, and multilateralism under the Africa-Europe Partnership with the view charting a joint path ahead, for the 2025 AU-EU Summit and beyond.
For More Information
Joint Declaration of Civil Society and Youth (French version)
European Union External Action Service – Africa and the EU
Global Gateway in Sub-Saharan Africa
6th European Union – African Union Summit: A Joint Vision for 2030
