After a G20 summit, much like after a European Council meeting in Brussels, every participant tends to boast about their own successes and portray themselves as victors to their domestic audience. Chancellor Olaf Scholz was no exception at the meeting in New Delhi. He emphasized that the summit’s concluding statement is “a clear commitment that the territorial integrity of states like Ukraine is beyond question, and borders should not be shifted through force”. He asserted that such clarity is certainly not in the interest of the Russian government.
However, Moscow was indeed interested in preventing a sharp condemnation of the “aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine”. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, along with ally China, prevented such wording, which had been agreed upon at the previous G20 summit in Bali. A spokesperson for the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry stated that the text adopted now is “nothing that the Group of 20 should be proud of”.
Nevertheless, Western representatives in New Delhi did achieve some successes. The agreement for a new economic corridor between India and Europe has the potential to bring key players like India, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates closer to the EU. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen mentioned that behind this project are “partner states that not only possess vast experience with strategic infrastructure projects but also the corresponding financial means”. This strategic connection would benefit not only the countries through which the corridor passes. You can read more about the project in today’s Feature.
Although it is currently only a memorandum of understanding, it holds geopolitical significance. EU participants at the G20 summit in New Delhi have agreed with the USA, India, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to initiate a new transportation corridor between India and Europe. This corridor is expected to accelerate the transportation of goods by several days and include new infrastructure for electricity, hydrogen and data.
The participants aim to expand their trade relationships through the new economic corridor connecting India, the Middle East and Europe, simultaneously countering China’s growing influence in the region. Beijing utilizes infrastructure investments as part of its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to expand its political power. For instance, earlier this year, Beijing facilitated the rapprochement of arch-rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran.
“We are building a bridge through which goods, clean energy, and digital information can circulate faster and more reliably between strong economic regions,” said EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to Table.Media. She added that the project involves partner states with significant experience in strategic infrastructure projects and the financial means to support them. Therefore, the new corridor can help strengthen trade flows between Europe, the Middle East and Asia, benefiting not only the transit countries but also the broader region.
The memorandum of understanding outlines two new corridors:
According to von der Leyen, completing the route would shorten transportation times for goods by 40 percent. Currently, trade mainly passes through the Suez Canal. According to Michaël Tanchum, a researcher at the Austria Institute for European and Security Policy (AIES), a land corridor across the Arabian Peninsula could reduce transport times between Mumbai and Piraeus from 17 to ten days. Tanchum had outlined a potential route for such a corridor in a paper two years ago.
Implementing these plans would require substantial investments, especially in expanding the railway line through Saudi Arabia, potentially becoming one of the major infrastructure projects planned by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
The participating countries aim to develop an action plan for the economic corridor within 60 days. Coordination will likely be carried out by a task force led by the EU Commission and the Indian government, involving other partners. Given von der Leyen’s assessment of the project’s strategic importance, it may be directly managed within the Commission.
On her way to New Delhi, von der Leyen made a stop in Abu Dhabi to promote the corridor with UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. The plans had been quietly developed as the nexus between Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Israel, is politically sensitive. Washington mediated in this regard.
The US government is currently trying to regain lost ground in the Middle East. The government is particularly working towards an approach that unites Saudi Arabia and the UAE with their ally Israel. The newly agreed-upon economic corridor is “a really big deal” from the US perspective, according to President Joe Biden following the signing of the memorandum of understanding.
From the EU’s perspective, this mega-project can enhance the Global Gateway Initiative. This initiative aims to mobilize around €300 billion in investments for connectivity projects within seven years to preserve Europe’s influence. However, significant and strategically important projects like the new corridor have been lacking so far.
Von der Leyen hopes that the new connections will enable the import of large quantities of renewable energy and clean hydrogen, primarily from Saudi Arabia, the UAE and India. Moreover, the new submarine internet cable is expected to be constructed with as little Chinese technology as possible to enhance communication security.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is also interested in this development. Improved connections could promote trade and build mutual trust. India is considering extending the corridor to Vietnam to strengthen its influence in Southeast Asia. Saudi Arabia and the UAE, on the other hand, have an interest in expanding trade and not overly relying on China.
Furthermore, the US and the EU aim to collaborate with local governments to expand transport infrastructure in southern Africa. The trans-African corridor will link the Katanga region in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Copperbelt in Zambia to the port of Lobito in Angola, according to a joint statement. Katanga in southeastern Congo possesses significant resources, especially copper and cobalt, essential for the green transformation.
Initially, Washington and Brussels plan to commission feasibility studies for building a railway line between Zambia and Angola. This builds upon the USA’s efforts to modernize the railway section from the port of Lobito to the Democratic Republic of Congo. Upon completion, not only will export opportunities for the three countries improve, but regional trade will also receive a boost.
Margrethe Vestager is advocating for far-reaching reforms at the European Investment Bank (EIB). “Speed is of the essence; that bank is not known for speed,” she told journalists in Berlin on Friday. In the past ten years, the bank has grown enormously, from 2,000 employees to over 4,000. It has taken on the role of the EU’s climate bank and expanded its global presence. Now it’s time to review the processes and increase the bank’s visibility: “It’s really a pity that not more people know that the world’s biggest multinational bank is the European Investment Bank.”
The 55-year-old Dane had previously met with Finance Minister Christian Lindner, Economy Minister Robert Habeck and Chancellor’s Chief of Staff Wolfgang Schmidt to promote her candidacy for the EIB’s top position. The German government is one of the largest shareholders in the bank, based in Luxembourg.
EU finance ministers will discuss the personnel issue at the informal council meeting in Santiago de Compostela at the end of the week but are unlikely to make a decision yet. Vestager’s strongest rival, Spanish Economy Minister Nadia Calviño, happens to hold the chair there. Vestager said she would travel to the meeting as part of the Danish delegation to be available for discussions.
Vestager argues that the EIB should use its resources to fill a financing gap for young companies in Europe. For companies in the growth phase, obtaining larger financing of more than 35 or 50 million euros is very difficult. Therefore, they often turn to the United States, Saudi Arabia or Singapore. “There should be no lack of financing for this in Europe,” said Vestager, especially given the investment needs for decarbonization.
Financing such projects is, of course, riskier than the EIB’s traditional business, Vestager admitted. Therefore, effective risk management is essential. However, within the EIB Group, there is already experience with financing startups, particularly through the European Investment Fund (EIF). “These ideas are not foreign or revolutionary within the bank.”
Vestager assured that she by no means intends to jeopardize the bank’s top credit rating. “The triple-A rating is part of the bank’s business model,” she said. Only in this way can it borrow money at favorable rates and offer financing. Lindner had emphasized the day before that the top rating was “of paramount importance” for the bank. “Sound banking” must continue to be the top priority for the EIB.
The Berlin coalition partners have so far been reserved about whom they want to support. Chancellor Olaf Scholz is rumored to prefer Calviño for the position. Among the contenders is also former Italian Finance Minister Daniele Franco. The Italian government announced on Sunday that it had asked Germany for support for Franco. He is a “highly qualified technocrat, free from political influences”, they said. However, due to his age (70), the respected economist, who served as Minister for Economic Affairs from 2021 to 2022 in Mario Draghi’s unity government, is considered a long shot. The long-serving EIB President Werner Hoyer will step down at the end of the year.
Habeck demands that the development bank finance more cross-border projects, such as the expansion of power lines or rail connections. Vestager assured that this is also a priority for her: “The bank has always been and shall always be a big investor in infrastructure.” The Energy Union requires the expansion of interconnectors, and particularly in Eastern Europe, there is a lack of transport connections to other EU states. Such investments are absolutely necessary, especially in view of a possible EU expansion.
Vestager argued that the EIB could play an important role outside Europe in the current geopolitical situation. However, she emphasized that it is important for the bank to become faster in this regard. “We have great competitors when it comes to financing in a number of states is in Africa, but also in Latin America.”
Vestager wants the bank to stay out of the dispute over the role of nuclear power among member states, especially between Germany and France. “Personally, I’m completely pragmatic,” she said. “But the bank is a bank and not another political fighting ground.” What role nuclear power should play in the EU must be discussed in the European Parliament, the Council, and the Commission. Industrial Commissioner Thierry Breton recently called on the bank to also finance nuclear power. Currently, it only finances the storage of nuclear waste but not new nuclear power plants.
In her daily routine, Heike Raab engages in discussions with members of the cabinets of EU commissioners, serves as the representative of Rhineland-Palatinate in the Conference of European Affairs Ministers and exchanges ideas with mayors, district administrators and state politicians from across the EU in the European Committee of the Regions. All of this has become quite commonplace for Heike Raab. As the State Secretary of the southwestern state, she focuses on “grassroots European policy“, as she calls it.
Raab’s job is to advocate for the interests of Rhineland-Palatinate, not only at the European level but also by coordinating the state’s policies in the Federal Council and at the federal level. She also chairs the Broadcasting Commission of the states. Raab is frequently on the move: from meetings in Brussels to the State Chancellery in Mainz and then to the state representation in Berlin.
Her home is in the picturesque town of Cochem on the Moselle River, where the now 58-year-old also grew up. She has been living “where others go on vacation” again since 2000. When she graduated from high school there in the mid-1980s, Europe’s borders had just opened with the Schengen Agreement. “That was a time when I, as a young woman, could discover Europe in a completely different way,” says Raab. Nevertheless, the European Union was still an abstract entity for her. Other issues were her focus. She was involved, among other things, in opposing a nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in the Eifel region.
After high school, she trained as a physiotherapist. “I didn’t come from an academic household,” Raab explains. “In our family, it was normal for all the kids to complete vocational training first.” Only after that did she study political science, law and Spanish. During her studies in 1989, she joined the SPD.
After completing her studies, politics shaped her life from 1992 onwards: she became the personal assistant to the Rhineland-Palatinate Prime Minister Rudolf Scharping, a member of the state parliament in Mainz, and the media policy spokesperson for the SPD parliamentary group. Before her current job, Raab worked as State Secretary in the Rhineland-Palatinate Ministry of the Interior.
For many years, Raab has considered media policy, in particular, her area of expertise. For example, she wants journalistic texts produced by artificial intelligence to be clearly labeled. “This would be an important measure to build trust,” she says. The currently negotiated European directive on artificial intelligence is also moving in this direction, according to Raab.
She is also concerned with how citizens can still reliably inform themselves today. Some people no longer read newspapers; instead, they consume social media flooded with fake news. Raab’s vision is a European, publicly accountable media platform subject to journalistic standards. She is currently in close contact with European colleagues about this, she says: “This is important for democracy. And it is also a topic that recharges me with energy time and again.” kjs
After a G20 summit, much like after a European Council meeting in Brussels, every participant tends to boast about their own successes and portray themselves as victors to their domestic audience. Chancellor Olaf Scholz was no exception at the meeting in New Delhi. He emphasized that the summit’s concluding statement is “a clear commitment that the territorial integrity of states like Ukraine is beyond question, and borders should not be shifted through force”. He asserted that such clarity is certainly not in the interest of the Russian government.
However, Moscow was indeed interested in preventing a sharp condemnation of the “aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine”. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, along with ally China, prevented such wording, which had been agreed upon at the previous G20 summit in Bali. A spokesperson for the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry stated that the text adopted now is “nothing that the Group of 20 should be proud of”.
Nevertheless, Western representatives in New Delhi did achieve some successes. The agreement for a new economic corridor between India and Europe has the potential to bring key players like India, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates closer to the EU. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen mentioned that behind this project are “partner states that not only possess vast experience with strategic infrastructure projects but also the corresponding financial means”. This strategic connection would benefit not only the countries through which the corridor passes. You can read more about the project in today’s Feature.
Although it is currently only a memorandum of understanding, it holds geopolitical significance. EU participants at the G20 summit in New Delhi have agreed with the USA, India, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to initiate a new transportation corridor between India and Europe. This corridor is expected to accelerate the transportation of goods by several days and include new infrastructure for electricity, hydrogen and data.
The participants aim to expand their trade relationships through the new economic corridor connecting India, the Middle East and Europe, simultaneously countering China’s growing influence in the region. Beijing utilizes infrastructure investments as part of its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to expand its political power. For instance, earlier this year, Beijing facilitated the rapprochement of arch-rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran.
“We are building a bridge through which goods, clean energy, and digital information can circulate faster and more reliably between strong economic regions,” said EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to Table.Media. She added that the project involves partner states with significant experience in strategic infrastructure projects and the financial means to support them. Therefore, the new corridor can help strengthen trade flows between Europe, the Middle East and Asia, benefiting not only the transit countries but also the broader region.
The memorandum of understanding outlines two new corridors:
According to von der Leyen, completing the route would shorten transportation times for goods by 40 percent. Currently, trade mainly passes through the Suez Canal. According to Michaël Tanchum, a researcher at the Austria Institute for European and Security Policy (AIES), a land corridor across the Arabian Peninsula could reduce transport times between Mumbai and Piraeus from 17 to ten days. Tanchum had outlined a potential route for such a corridor in a paper two years ago.
Implementing these plans would require substantial investments, especially in expanding the railway line through Saudi Arabia, potentially becoming one of the major infrastructure projects planned by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
The participating countries aim to develop an action plan for the economic corridor within 60 days. Coordination will likely be carried out by a task force led by the EU Commission and the Indian government, involving other partners. Given von der Leyen’s assessment of the project’s strategic importance, it may be directly managed within the Commission.
On her way to New Delhi, von der Leyen made a stop in Abu Dhabi to promote the corridor with UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. The plans had been quietly developed as the nexus between Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Israel, is politically sensitive. Washington mediated in this regard.
The US government is currently trying to regain lost ground in the Middle East. The government is particularly working towards an approach that unites Saudi Arabia and the UAE with their ally Israel. The newly agreed-upon economic corridor is “a really big deal” from the US perspective, according to President Joe Biden following the signing of the memorandum of understanding.
From the EU’s perspective, this mega-project can enhance the Global Gateway Initiative. This initiative aims to mobilize around €300 billion in investments for connectivity projects within seven years to preserve Europe’s influence. However, significant and strategically important projects like the new corridor have been lacking so far.
Von der Leyen hopes that the new connections will enable the import of large quantities of renewable energy and clean hydrogen, primarily from Saudi Arabia, the UAE and India. Moreover, the new submarine internet cable is expected to be constructed with as little Chinese technology as possible to enhance communication security.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is also interested in this development. Improved connections could promote trade and build mutual trust. India is considering extending the corridor to Vietnam to strengthen its influence in Southeast Asia. Saudi Arabia and the UAE, on the other hand, have an interest in expanding trade and not overly relying on China.
Furthermore, the US and the EU aim to collaborate with local governments to expand transport infrastructure in southern Africa. The trans-African corridor will link the Katanga region in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Copperbelt in Zambia to the port of Lobito in Angola, according to a joint statement. Katanga in southeastern Congo possesses significant resources, especially copper and cobalt, essential for the green transformation.
Initially, Washington and Brussels plan to commission feasibility studies for building a railway line between Zambia and Angola. This builds upon the USA’s efforts to modernize the railway section from the port of Lobito to the Democratic Republic of Congo. Upon completion, not only will export opportunities for the three countries improve, but regional trade will also receive a boost.
Margrethe Vestager is advocating for far-reaching reforms at the European Investment Bank (EIB). “Speed is of the essence; that bank is not known for speed,” she told journalists in Berlin on Friday. In the past ten years, the bank has grown enormously, from 2,000 employees to over 4,000. It has taken on the role of the EU’s climate bank and expanded its global presence. Now it’s time to review the processes and increase the bank’s visibility: “It’s really a pity that not more people know that the world’s biggest multinational bank is the European Investment Bank.”
The 55-year-old Dane had previously met with Finance Minister Christian Lindner, Economy Minister Robert Habeck and Chancellor’s Chief of Staff Wolfgang Schmidt to promote her candidacy for the EIB’s top position. The German government is one of the largest shareholders in the bank, based in Luxembourg.
EU finance ministers will discuss the personnel issue at the informal council meeting in Santiago de Compostela at the end of the week but are unlikely to make a decision yet. Vestager’s strongest rival, Spanish Economy Minister Nadia Calviño, happens to hold the chair there. Vestager said she would travel to the meeting as part of the Danish delegation to be available for discussions.
Vestager argues that the EIB should use its resources to fill a financing gap for young companies in Europe. For companies in the growth phase, obtaining larger financing of more than 35 or 50 million euros is very difficult. Therefore, they often turn to the United States, Saudi Arabia or Singapore. “There should be no lack of financing for this in Europe,” said Vestager, especially given the investment needs for decarbonization.
Financing such projects is, of course, riskier than the EIB’s traditional business, Vestager admitted. Therefore, effective risk management is essential. However, within the EIB Group, there is already experience with financing startups, particularly through the European Investment Fund (EIF). “These ideas are not foreign or revolutionary within the bank.”
Vestager assured that she by no means intends to jeopardize the bank’s top credit rating. “The triple-A rating is part of the bank’s business model,” she said. Only in this way can it borrow money at favorable rates and offer financing. Lindner had emphasized the day before that the top rating was “of paramount importance” for the bank. “Sound banking” must continue to be the top priority for the EIB.
The Berlin coalition partners have so far been reserved about whom they want to support. Chancellor Olaf Scholz is rumored to prefer Calviño for the position. Among the contenders is also former Italian Finance Minister Daniele Franco. The Italian government announced on Sunday that it had asked Germany for support for Franco. He is a “highly qualified technocrat, free from political influences”, they said. However, due to his age (70), the respected economist, who served as Minister for Economic Affairs from 2021 to 2022 in Mario Draghi’s unity government, is considered a long shot. The long-serving EIB President Werner Hoyer will step down at the end of the year.
Habeck demands that the development bank finance more cross-border projects, such as the expansion of power lines or rail connections. Vestager assured that this is also a priority for her: “The bank has always been and shall always be a big investor in infrastructure.” The Energy Union requires the expansion of interconnectors, and particularly in Eastern Europe, there is a lack of transport connections to other EU states. Such investments are absolutely necessary, especially in view of a possible EU expansion.
Vestager argued that the EIB could play an important role outside Europe in the current geopolitical situation. However, she emphasized that it is important for the bank to become faster in this regard. “We have great competitors when it comes to financing in a number of states is in Africa, but also in Latin America.”
Vestager wants the bank to stay out of the dispute over the role of nuclear power among member states, especially between Germany and France. “Personally, I’m completely pragmatic,” she said. “But the bank is a bank and not another political fighting ground.” What role nuclear power should play in the EU must be discussed in the European Parliament, the Council, and the Commission. Industrial Commissioner Thierry Breton recently called on the bank to also finance nuclear power. Currently, it only finances the storage of nuclear waste but not new nuclear power plants.
In her daily routine, Heike Raab engages in discussions with members of the cabinets of EU commissioners, serves as the representative of Rhineland-Palatinate in the Conference of European Affairs Ministers and exchanges ideas with mayors, district administrators and state politicians from across the EU in the European Committee of the Regions. All of this has become quite commonplace for Heike Raab. As the State Secretary of the southwestern state, she focuses on “grassroots European policy“, as she calls it.
Raab’s job is to advocate for the interests of Rhineland-Palatinate, not only at the European level but also by coordinating the state’s policies in the Federal Council and at the federal level. She also chairs the Broadcasting Commission of the states. Raab is frequently on the move: from meetings in Brussels to the State Chancellery in Mainz and then to the state representation in Berlin.
Her home is in the picturesque town of Cochem on the Moselle River, where the now 58-year-old also grew up. She has been living “where others go on vacation” again since 2000. When she graduated from high school there in the mid-1980s, Europe’s borders had just opened with the Schengen Agreement. “That was a time when I, as a young woman, could discover Europe in a completely different way,” says Raab. Nevertheless, the European Union was still an abstract entity for her. Other issues were her focus. She was involved, among other things, in opposing a nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in the Eifel region.
After high school, she trained as a physiotherapist. “I didn’t come from an academic household,” Raab explains. “In our family, it was normal for all the kids to complete vocational training first.” Only after that did she study political science, law and Spanish. During her studies in 1989, she joined the SPD.
After completing her studies, politics shaped her life from 1992 onwards: she became the personal assistant to the Rhineland-Palatinate Prime Minister Rudolf Scharping, a member of the state parliament in Mainz, and the media policy spokesperson for the SPD parliamentary group. Before her current job, Raab worked as State Secretary in the Rhineland-Palatinate Ministry of the Interior.
For many years, Raab has considered media policy, in particular, her area of expertise. For example, she wants journalistic texts produced by artificial intelligence to be clearly labeled. “This would be an important measure to build trust,” she says. The currently negotiated European directive on artificial intelligence is also moving in this direction, according to Raab.
She is also concerned with how citizens can still reliably inform themselves today. Some people no longer read newspapers; instead, they consume social media flooded with fake news. Raab’s vision is a European, publicly accountable media platform subject to journalistic standards. She is currently in close contact with European colleagues about this, she says: “This is important for democracy. And it is also a topic that recharges me with energy time and again.” kjs
