“We Europeans all know what connectivity is all about. It’s really in our DNA. Our infrastructures liaise us, and in our youth, the chances are we’ve been travelling by train via Interrail, or we have studied abroad thanks to an ERASMUS programme. We don’t have roaming charges when using the phone in another EU country, and our energy grid is well developed. In policy terms, connectivity means just that: narrowing the physical or virtual distance.” With the Global Gateway, connectivity is the new way to conduct foreign policy for the EU.
In this video, Stefania Benaglia, Associate Researcher at CEPS, examines the EU’s ‘Global Gateway’ initiative. Many have noted its similarity to the Chinese ‘Belt and Road’ initiative, but in Stefania’s analysis this isn’t a fair comparison: “it is not an immediate response to the Belt and Road initiative, but “a complementary one, an alternative option.” So, what is the Global Gateway? And what does it mean for Europeans?
TEPSA Explainers are short videos elaborating on key issues in European affairs according to the expertise of the contributor.
