The second edition of the Global Gateway Forum took place on 9-10 October 2025 in Brussels. Building on the success of the inaugural Forum in 2023, which highlighted the European Union’s external investment initiatives, this year’s event focused on advancing global connectivity in the face of geopolitical and geoeconomic challenges.
See the background paper Partnerships in a Geopolitical Era: Time for a New Strategic Conversation prepared by our partners Brussels Institute for Geopolitics, Clingendael Institute and Egmont Institute.
The Forum brought together high-level representatives from governments, financial institutions, the private sector, and civil society and explored innovative strategies for scaling up Global Gateway investments in partner countries.
What is Global Gateway?
Global Gateway is the European Union's strategy to boost smart, clean and secure connections in digital, energy and transport sectors, and to strengthen health, education and research systems across the world.
Global Gateway is fully aligned with the UN’s Agenda 2030 and its sustainable development goals, as well as the Paris Agreement.
Global Gateway aims to mobilise up to EUR 300 billion in investments.
- 08:00-09:00
Registrations
- 08:00-08:45
Welcome breakfast
- 09:00-09:15Keynote speech by Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission
- 09:15-12:30Statements by Heads of State and Government
- 12:30-13:50
Lunch
- 13:50-14:00Remarks by Kaja Kallas, High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission
- 14:00-15:30Panel on the State of the World
- 15:30-16:00
Coffee break
- 16:00-17:30Panel on Looking at Connectivity through a Geostrategic Lens
- 17:45-19:00
Networking reception at the Square
- As of 19:00
High-level dinner hosted by Commissioner Jozef Síkela (by invitation only)
- 08:30-09:00
Welcome coffee
- 09:00-10:30
- Panel on Strategising Partnerships – Global
- Panel on Strategising Partnerships – Mediterranean
- Panel on Strategising Partnerships – Black Sea
- 10:30-11:00
Coffee break
- 11:00-12:30
- Thematic session 1 – Driving Sustainable and Strategic Transport Connectivity
- Thematic session 2 – Two Sides of the Same Coin: Energy Security and Industrial Competitiveness in the EU’s Global Gateway Strategy
- Thematic session 3 – Geopolitics of Digital Connectivity: A Shared Quest for Sovereignty
- 12:30-14:00
Lunch
- 14:00-15:30
- Scale-up sessions – Global Gateway Flagship Projects (by invitation only)
- ASEAN Power Grid
- Scaling up the hydropower potential in Central Asia
- Lobito Corridor
- The EU Sustainable Cocoa Initiative
- IMEC digital connectivity: Blue Raman
- MAV+ : Investing in Africa’s health sovereignty through Strategic Partnerships
- Regional electricity integration in Latin America and Caribbean
- High Performance Computing: Establishing an EU-LAC Supercomputing Network for AI
- Global Gateway Green Shipping Corridors
- Medusa Submarine Cable System
- Expanding connectivity between the EU, Türkiye and the Eastern Partnership towards Central Asia
- Powering renewable energy in Africa
- Connectivity Interrupted – The Security Dimension
- Getting to Business with Global Gateway
- Scale-up sessions – Global Gateway Flagship Projects (by invitation only)
- 15:30-16:00Concluding remarks by Jozef Síkela, European Commissioner for International Partnerships
Separate side events
In the margins of the Global Gateway Forum, two side events were held on 8 October in Brussels (by invitation only).
Steering Committee on the India–Middle East–Europe Corridor (IMEC)
The side event among IMEC signatories drove forward planning for the corridor, from mapping initiatives to preparing feasibility studies and will advance work on finalising a governance framework.
3rd EU-Caribbean Global Gateway Conference on Sargassum
The separate side event organised under the theme ‘Beyond the Tide: Practical approaches to Sargassum Response’ provided pragmatic follow-up to the ongoing efforts for creating sustainable value chains for Sargassum in the framework of the Global Gateway strategy and gave a push to approaches and operations in strategic and financial terms.