Remember “Global Gateway”, the EU’s answer to China’s Belt and Road initiative?
Well the European Parliament just published a report on it: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/A-10-2026-0045_EN.html in which they express concern “that a number of Global Gateway projects are being implemented by Chinese companies in direct violation of the initiative’s objective of presenting an alternative to the Belt and Road Initiative.”
When even your alternative to the BRI accidentally becomes part of the BRI
Development initiatives should almost by definition be positive-sum, not zero sum: the moment you define success as “not China” rather than “good outcomes for partner countries,” you basically kill the very spirit of your initiative - and that’s probably a big reason why Global Gateway is such a failure to date.
Just go through the report: it spends considerable energy on “is China involved?” and relatively little on “are poor people getting better infrastructure?” That ordering of priorities tells you everything you need to know…
That’s it, common European L because racism.