International Cooperation & Partnership
The ‘Global Europe’ instrument is a key component of a stronger Europe for a better world with a global reach and a game changer in the field of international cooperation. ‘Global Europe’ gives us the financial tools and means to reinforce the policy-driven approach to EU cooperation to make it more strategic and responsive to EU and partners’ common priorities, in line with EU values.
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International Cooperation & Partnership
Global dynamics and trends are changing the nature of international cooperation and partnerships. From climate change and biodiversity loss, to geopolitical rivalry and undermining of multilateralism, without forgetting disinformation or attacks on human rights and roll back on liberal values. The setbacks on recent development progresses generated a decline in human development for the first time in 30 years.
The European Union (EU), more than ever, needs to work closely with its partners to face these challenges. Joint actions, based on common interests, will more successfully lead to a safer, greener, more prosperous and equal world.
In doing so, the EU intends to apply the ‘policy first’ principle. The EU’s participation in international cooperation and partnerships is carried out in a more strategic way to achieve wider political priorities whilst remaining strongly committed to the implementation of the UN 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The creation of ‘Global Europe’ provides more coherence, simplification and flexibility to support our external action and underpin the EU’s international alliances and partnerships, at national, regional and international levels, to confront today’s global challenges and seize opportunities for political engagement to support our vision to build back better.
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Participant in the ‘Youth Empowerment’ project in Jordan, which strengthened the media, universities and schools, youth organisations and education professionals in the country. © UNESCO
‘NDICI - Global Europe’ (2021-2027)
Moving beyond a traditional developmental approach
The new ‘Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation instrument – Global Europe’ (called ‘Global Europe’) entered into force on 14 June 2021.
The vast majority of multi-annual programming documents 2021-2027 were formally approved by the end of 2021, with most of the remaining ones following in 2022 The implementation of Global Europe is now underway. It is transforming the EU’s and joint priorities with partner countries into concrete projects to support our geopolitical agenda as well as the implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and to address the global consequences of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine.
Global Europe also supports the EU’s long-standing commitment to youth around the world as clearly shown by the renewal of the Erasmus+ Programme, which now benefits from more financial resources and outreach.
Civil society engagement is a major priority, with a focus on women and youth organizations, with local and regional authorities and with the private sector to enable governments and policymakers to define and implement the necessary policy reforms to address challenges and promote sustainable development, peace and stability.
Finally, Global Europe is key to support the Global Gateway, our value-based connectivity approach, which will also be implemented through Team Europe Initiatives, putting together the leverage and know-how of EU institutions and EU Member States.
Global Food security
The world is facing a global food crisis, triggered by climate change, conflicts, consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, and significantly aggravated by Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. The number of people acutely food insecure has reached a record level of around 222 million in 2022 (Global Report on Food Crisis of September 2022). According to the UN, hunger levels are higher than ever before with 45 million people in 37 countries at the edge of starvation or already in famine conditions.
The most affected people live in countries highly dependent on grain exports from Ukraine and Russia (mainly in the Middle East and North Africa), as well as in countries highly vulnerable to food insecurity (notably from Sub-Saharan Africa). Of highest concern are the “hunger hotspots”, including those at risk of famine - Somalia, Yemen, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, South Sudan and Nigeria. Others such as Pakistan and Syria have also been particularly impacted.
International Cooperation and Global Gateway
Global Gateway is Europe’s offer to build sustainable and secure links that bring lasting benefits for people, economies and countries without indebting future generations and an effective contribution to achieving the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals. It is the EU’s brand and overall strategic and political framework, putting a roof over the external dimensions of the Green Deal, the Digital Agenda and the priorities that have steered our work since the start of this Commission. Global Gateway is financed and implemented in a Team Europe approach.
Global Gateway, announced by EC President Von Der Leyen in September 2021, is Europe’s response to the global infrastructure gap and the challenges of building back better following the Covid-19 pandemics. It builds on our own internal experience – the EU is itself a product of connectivity, and now the NextGenerationEU and national recovery plans are boosting the green and digital transitions of our Member States. We offer our partners expertise and resources, with both traditional and innovative financing instruments, to support their green, digital, just and resilient recovery. Global Gateway aims at boosting smart, clean and secure links in digital, energy and transport sectors and to strengthen health, education and research systems across the world, by investing in physical sustainable infrastructure and people-to-people approaches
Global Gateway seeks an interconnected approach to our partnerships, which takes further the objective in our financial instrument Global Europe to “address interlinkages between the SDGs, to promote integrated actions that can create co-benefits and meet multiple objectives in a coherent way”. In addition, Global Gateway enabling sectors (democratic values, high standards, good governance and transparency, business climate) contribute to the whole SDG framework, especially SDGs 5, 8, 10, 16 and 17.
Global Gateway
Global Gateway flagships are key connectivity operations of geopolitical relevance supporting EU strategic interests aligned with our partners’ priorities and our political dialogues, strengthening links and promoting convergence of norms and standards and demonstrating the positive offer that Europe as a reliable partner can deliver. Beside these flagships, there is a larger range of other initiatives and projects, which will all contribute to the ambitious objective of mobilising up to EUR 300 billion of investments between 2021 and 2027, as announced in December 2021. For implementing the Global Gateway strategy and flagships, European actors join forces in a Team Europe approach, mainly through Team Europe Initiatives (TEIs). In practice, this means the contribution by and the joining of efforts with Member States (including their Development Finance Institutions and agencies in the area of development; but also export credit agencies: the EIB and the EBRD are just as critical as the contribution from the EU budget.
More info at https://www.eeas.europa.eu/eeas/global-gateway_en
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Standing stronger together as Team Europe
Team Europe
Standing stronger together
An unprecedented pandemic and unjustified and unprovoked Russian war of aggression against Ukraine changed the world we live in. Against the background of these global challenges, the EU and its partners provide a positive offer towards a sustainable, green, digital, resilient and inclusive recovery, first and foremost through international cooperation and multilateral action. We stand firmly behind the UN’s 2030 Agenda and it’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which continue to guide global action as a shared blueprint both for achieving sustainable development and a better recovery from the COVID crisis.
Europe was always about ‘Standing stronger together’. Team Europe (TE) brings together the EU, its Member States and their diplomatic network, finance institutions and implementing organizations, as well as the EIB and the EBRD. The Team Europe approach is a way of strengthening coordination, coherence and complementarities of actions to scale up European impact and raise Europe as partner of reference.
Team Europe members have been jointly designing Team Europe Initiatives in line with the Council Conclusions of 23rd of April 2021 to strategically promote the EU, its Member States and financial institutions as partners of reference, and to increase the impact and visibility of European action. The design of the TEIs is a balancing act of flexible cooperation arrangements between Team Europe members and the need to have a minimum common frame that keeps the TEI together. This common frame is envisaged as an overarching joint intervention logic for the TEI and its associated results. It should be noted that the Global Gateway will be developed and delivered mainly through Team Europe Initiatives.
An area where the Team Europe approach has been very visible and successful is vaccines. On 18 September 2020, the European Union confirmed to COVAX the participation of the European Union as part of a ‘Team Europe’ approach and has been at the forefront of global efforts to ensure international access to vaccines, with a Euro 3.2 billion contribution to the COVAX initiative. Updated information on the TEIs can be found on the Team Europe Initiatives and Joint Programming Tracker.
Global recovery linked to Sustainable Development Goals
Prioritising the SDGs (i.e. human development and vaccines)
Global challenges remind us that the full implementation of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is crucial to build back better and greener after the global health crisis. Providing a comprehensive response to COVID-19 remains the EU’s top priority, including strengthening preparedness and resilience to better prepare for future shocks.
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‘Human development and education are top-priorities’, schoolgirls in Somalia. © Somalia Delegation: : SABUL Mohamed
