On Tuesday 11 February, European development ministers continued their informal meeting in Warsaw after an initial exchange the previous evening on the EU’s ‘Global Gateway’ strategy, promoted as a strategic geopolitical lever by the Polish Presidency of the EU Council.
“The idea is to pull useful resources from governments, from Member States and from the private sector. We, as Europe, want to be a geopolitical leader who is not shy about democracy, about our values, about human rights”, stressed the Polish Undersecretary of State, Jakub Wiśniewski, at the end of the meeting.
On Tuesday, discussions focused on the financing of international aid and the resilience of societies in the face of crises. Particular attention was paid to the situations in Syria, Mauritania and Ukraine.
“Ukraine will be a core focus and remain so as much as needed. We will focus for Ukraine, but we won’t forget either the other countries that need EU support”, said Mariin Ratnik, Estonia’s Undersecretary for International Cooperation.
Financing of aid. In a context marked by the suspension of US foreign aid (see EUROPE 13562/21) and a European Commission development cooperation policy more focused on competitive partnerships (see EUROPE 13513/10), ministers addressed the need to diversify financing sources. In particular, they discussed the involvement of the private sector, along the lines of the model advocated by Finland.
“We are using even more our resources and building our organisations to do more trade, and that is helping the developing countries. We are helping the developing countries to industrialise, create those jobs that they need, and also creating opportunities for Finnish companies”, said Ville Tavio, Finnish Minister for Development Cooperation.
With the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development scheduled for June 2025 in Seville, Spain’s Secretary of State for International Cooperation, Eva Granados, called for a stronger EU commitment to the UN’s 2030 Agenda.
“We are convinced that shared prosperity is not only a question of solidarity, but also of peace and global stability. It’s time to remember that Europe is the world’s biggest donor and a major player on the international stage”, she declared.
Crisis in the DRC. Announcing bilateral meetings with a number of European counterparts to take stock of the situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Jochen Flasbarth, State Secretary at Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, expressed his concern at Rwanda’s support for the M23 rebel movement in North Kivu.
“Germany already stopped bilateral consultations with Rwanda, and I’m reaching out here to convince partners that we also should pause support to Rwanda at this point in time”, he said on arrival at the ministerial meeting. (Original version in French by Bernard Denuit)