External initiatives from the European Union (EU) involving other countries can be inspired by external events. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development UNCTAD, for example, inspired the launch of the Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP) (1971), designed to incentive trade with economically developing countries. Central America and Andean countries benefited from a special GSP in the 1980s and 1990s due to the circumstances at the time. Later, the creation of GSP + brought a focus on Sustainable Development, among other matters, once again demonstrating the influence of international agendas.
Recently, a more ambitious initiative from the EU – also promoting sustainable development to facilitate the green transition, among other issues – was launched under the name of Global Gateway (GG). However, unlike with the GSP, and closer to the work of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), its main tool is investment in infrastructure, and its objectives are once again aligned with external agendas such as the 2030Agenda and the Paris Agreement.
The launch of the Global Gateway by the European Commission and Josep Borrell, then EU High Representative, took place in December 2021. It introduced a budget of €300 billion in investment until 2027 from various partners: the EU, its Members, and financial and development institutions, all under the Team Europe label. The section of the Global Gateway dedicated to the Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) was allocated only €45 billion of the total budget. Nevertheless, 51 projects were “named” for LAC under five key areas: (i) digital, (ii) climate and energy, (iii) transport, (iv) health and (v) education and research (see Table 1 below). They were merely “named”, as the announcement of the LAC section took place only two years ago, in March 2023 — four months before the III EU-CELAC Summit in Brussels in July — leaving little time to finalise all the details.
Holding bi-regional Summits every two years helps to bring results to the table. The next one, scheduled for November 2025 in Colombia, will be a good opportunity to take stoke of the progress made on GG projects. Since the last Summit in July 2023, the international context has become more political and economic uncertain, which could accelerate the development of some of the projects. During this period, partly as a result of the context, there has been progress, for example, in other aspects of the bi-regional relationship: the EU-Chile Advanced Framework Agreement (2023), the EU-Mercosur Agreement (2024), and the EU-Mexico Agreement (2025).
In relation to Global Gateway, the project on Green Hydrogen in Chile is progressing well, involving a team of several countries: Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Paraguay, Costa Rica, Uruguay, Austria, Denmark, Netherlands, Spain, Finland, Italy, France, Germany and the European Commission. Furthermore, the EU-CELAC ministerial meeting held in New York on 24 September welcomed “the recent progress achieved under the EU-LAC Global Gateway Investment Agenda and called for deeper collaboration to accelerate its implementation, translating commitments into tangible benefits for citizens and businesses”. Finally, during the second edition of the Global Gateway Forum, which took place on 9–10 October 2025 in Brussels, it was announced that several LAC-related initiatives are set to scale up, notably: Regional Electricity Integration in Latin America and the Caribbean; High Performance Computing: Establishing an EU–LAC Supercomputing Network for AI; and the Global Gateway Green Shipping Corridors.
As the table demonstrates, Climate and Energy stands out as by far the most prominent section of the Global Gateway projects in LAC is, with 28 initiatives. Some of these projects are already taking their first steps (see blue link), while others – such as the Green Hydrogen project in Chile- are becoming a reality.
In previous instances of EU programmes towards Latin America, the social dimension was more present, as seen in programmes such as EUROsociAL. Yet, this is not the first time the EU has funded projects on green policies in the region. In fact, programmes such as Euroclima or Al invest verde, have been in place longer than the Global Gateway, and as their names suggest, both focus on green projects. However, their budgets are not comparable. Al invest verde, for example, received less than €38 million for a five-years period.
Global Gateway brings larger budgets, thanks to its capacity to attract funding from both the private and public sectors. But why now? This increase in funding for green policies is connected with the different context (again!). Since the launch of Made in China 2025 (2015), the European Green Deal (2019), and the Inflation Reduction Act in the US (2022), green transitions have become a strategic priority, generating a competitive market around them. Considering Latin America’s abundance of natural resources — essential for both i) the green transition and ii) reducing dependence on countries like the US and China — the prioritisation of Climate and Energy within the GG makes sense.
On the LAC side, Brazil and Chile are at the front of the energy’s transition. At the same time, “just transitions” for the society as a whole, along with opportunities to develop industries in LAC (for instance, manufacturing batteries for electric vehicles instead of merely extracting lithium) must be equally prioritised within the Global Gateway. Moreover, LAC countries are also drivers of environmental rights (see the Escazú Agreement, 2022) and thus serve as an example for other regions.
Finally, the EU and LAC also share other relevant political agendas, which have gained relevance since the last Summit. Some of them are part of the Global Gateway’s six key principles: (i) democratic values and high standards, (ii) good governance and transparency, (iii) equal partnerships, (iv) green and clean, (v) security focused, and the already mentioned one (vi) catalysing the private sector. This may be considered the Global Gateway’s strongest public relations advantage when compared with other competitors; after all, economic arguments can be as relevant as political ones among democracies.
Table 1: List of Global Gateway projects in Latin American and the Caribbean
(The opinions expressed in this blog are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the position of the EU-LAC Foundation).