Shaping Europe’s Global Gateway for a Geopolitical Era

Ahead of the Global Gateway Forum 2025 on 9-10 October, the Brussels Institute for Geopolitics, Clingendael Institute and the Egmont Institute co-organised a working lunch on 11 June in Brussels as part of an ongoing project to help shape Europe’s strategic partnerships at a time of mounting geopolitical tensions.  It brought together the private sector, think tanks, EU and national government figures to provide feedback and ideas together with Koen Doens, Director-General of DG INTPA, the directorate responsible for overseeing its implementation. 

The Global Gateway is the EU’s flagship infrastructure and investment strategy, launched in 2021 to build partnerships and enhance connectivity globally.  

The discussion explored how the EU’s economic foreign policy can build mutually beneficial, interest-driven partnerships, with a focus on the private sector’s role in scaling up the Global Gateway. Participants considered the initiative’s relevance amid current trade and investment uncertainties and the possibility of pragmatic engagement with China’s Belt and Road Initiative. BIG, together with Clingendael and Egmont, examined the Gateway’s framing through three main lenses: as an updated approach to development aid, a strategic response to China’s Belt and Road initiative and a vehicle for advancing Europe’s geo-economic interests. 

The findings of this open exchange, held under Chatham House rules, will help shape the Global Gateway Forum into a platform for inclusive dialogue and strategic cooperation, anchoring Europe’s connectivity agenda in shared knowledge and common purpose. This effort is part of a broader geostrategic awakening, as Europe confronts mounting challenges from both east and west and faces intensifying global competition for resources. The 2025 Forum aspires to become the leading annual venue to discuss European connectivity and partnerships on the world stage.