GENEVA

The EU Commission president on Wednesday said the Global Gateway initiative, considered Europe's answer to China's Belt and Road, is delivering "positive results." 

Speaking at the first edition of the two-day Global Gateway Forum in Brussels, Ursula von der Leyen said the platform aims to move forward together as "in the recent years, it has often felt like the world has taken a step back."

Referring the current conflict between Israel and Hamas, Russia's war on Ukraine, climate crisis and post-pandemic recovery as challenges the world is currently facing, Von der Leyen said: "The fate of present and future generations depends on more than before on the quality and the quantity of the infrastructure that connects us all."

"And that is why team Europe has put forward Europe's largest global investment program ever," she said of the plan that aims to mobilize up to €300 billion ($317.2 billion) in investments between 2021 and 2027 for financing and building clean infrastructure.

"No country should be faced with a situation in which the only option to finance its essential infrastructure is to sell its future," she said.

"We know that our security is built on your security and vice versa. Our competitiveness increases when your economies grow and prosper. Our resilience is stronger when our friends are also more resilient," the EU Commission chief said. "That's why Europe has chosen to work closer with our partners. And two years since we have launched Global Gateway, we're seeing the positive results."

She noted that the EU has already committed €66 billion to transformative projects, underlining almost half of it were grants that "do not have to be paid back."

"There is still much to do but we can already say today Global Gateway is delivering," she said.

Regarding the climate change aspect of the initiative, she emphasized that developing countries can be a "crucial part of the solution to climate change."