When this Commission started in December 2019, all commissioners received a personal mission letter from President. This mission letter has guided my work ever since. We have changed our approach from being a donor towards more equal partnerships. And we have accomplished very good results.
Visiting all regions and signing the Samoa Agreement
My role as the Commissioner for International Partnerships covers cooperation with 126 countries or regions in Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia, Africa and the Pacific. This year, in 2023, I visited all of these regions. Year was truly exceptional and important regarding meeting the targets set in the beginning of this mandate.
One of the most important moments came in November, when we finally signed the new Samoa Agreement following the long Post Cotonou process in which I was the chief negotiator from EU. EU and our 79 partner countries agreed on a new frame for our cooperation for the next 20 years.
At the same occasion, I had the pleasure to engage in Samoa with the Pacific leaders regarding the regional protocol and implementation of the new agreement.
Delivering through Global Gateway
Rolling out the Global Gateway investment strategy in partner regions has been the red thread for the entire year. Global Gateway is implemented by Team Europe together with our partners. For example, with civil society, cities and regions, we use their capacity and knowledge on the ground, really localizing the Global Gateway.
Global Gateway strategy is off to a successful start with flagships for 2023 being now implemented. In October we held the first ever Global Gateway forum, with 90 high-level participants from partner countries, private sector and EU member states as well as 10 members of the college of commissioners. We also signed new agreements worth of 3 billion euros, including on the strategically important Lobito Corridor.
We did an excellent Team Europe Global Gateway mission with president Macron to the Democratic Republic of Congo starting preparations for a MoU on critical raw materials and launching the Digital Economy Package. We launched the Regional Teachers Initiative in South Africa. In Nepal we launched the Team Europe Initiative on Green recovery and continued our strong support to the education sector.
We relaunched our partnership with Latin America and the Caribbean with the EU-CELAC Summit, first in 8 years, and the Global Gateway investment agenda as its key deliverable. Visiting Costa Rica, we agreed on the cooperation priorities and launched biodiversity protection initiative.
Fighting inequalities and introducing I-Marker
More than anything, my work is defined by our fight against inequalities. I was proud to introduce our innovative new tool the Inequality-Marker to ensure our own external actions contribute to reducing inequalities. In the first two years of implementation of the Gender Action Plan III, we have invested already EUR 22 billion for the promotion of gender equality.
Youth and education are my personal priorities. The implementation of the Youth Action Plan with the launch of the Women and Youth in Democracy Initiative and the Youth Empowerment Fund really highlighted this year.
Global Gateway contributes to the Agenda 2030 and all the sustainable development goals. We presented the first ever EU Voluntary SDG Review at the UN High-Level Political Forum as our contribution to the SDG Summit.
Multilateralism matters
Multilateral fora are key platforms in EU’s external work. Regarding United Nations, I participated to the Least Developed Countries conference, visited the Rome-based agencies and decided on the new support for Resident Coordinators. Furthermore, we had a high-level UN-EU retreat.
I participated in the G20 Development Ministers’ Meeting in Varanasi, India. In Marrakech, Morocco, we presented the EU position on the reform of the global financial architecture at the WB/IMF Development Committee at the Annual Meetings.
With multiple crisis in front of us and reaching our borders, we have not turned our backs on our partners. For example, in Afghanistan we continued providing support to basic needs while remaining committed to our values. In Africa, we enhanced engagement throughout the year on the Horn of Africa Initiative, including my participation at the Ministerial in Addis Ababa.
There is still work to be done
Looking back to 2019, we can see that we have already come a long way in accomplishing the tasks put in front of us. But there is still work to be done.
Regarding the financing instrument behind our actions, NDICI Global Europe, we are in the process of conducting a mid-term review. We look at where we are, and where we should put our emphasis going forward. Mid-term review gives us an opportunity to respond to the changed circumstances.
2024 will have its own set of Global Gateway flagships to steer and implement. While we are well on our way towards our goals, these projects will demand lots of work from Team Europe.
This has been team effort. Team Europe, but also our partner countries and other key stakeholders have been crucial in bringing about the change and impact. It is good to continue from here towards 2024.