The European Union will spend $45 billion in Latin America, with a focus on clean energy
The European Union will invest more than 45 billion euros in Latin America and the Caribbean through the European Global Gateway program, the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced on Monday.
«More than 135 projects are already on the starting line, from clean hydrogen to critical raw materials, from the expansion of high-performance data cable networks to the production of the most advanced RNA vaccines,» she made this statement at the start of a Roundtable with political and business leaders ahead of the EU-CELAC meeting, which will take place in Brussels on Monday and Tuesday.
Von der Leyen insisted that the Global Gateway program «not only has the size to make a difference,» but represents a «new approach» to investing in large infrastructure projects, since European investments will focus on «creating local value chains» so that the «added value stays in Latin America and the Caribbean».
The Commission President cited clean hydrogen and the critical raw materials industry as examples of areas with investment potential in which the EU and the Latin American and Caribbean region have «a common interest and shared ideas».
She also highlighted the region’s potential in renewable energies, with a wind and solar sector that is growing «exponentially also thanks to European investment» and considered that «the natural next step is to transform that clean energy into clean hydrogen», which could be easily exported and feed industries such as steel, cement or clean transportation «all made in Latin America and the Caribbean».
