Today, President Ursula von der Leyen and President António Costa are present at the EU-South Africa Summit in Cape Town to enhance Europes strategic partnership with the country.
During the summit, Europe and South Africa agreed to initiate discussions on a new generation of trade agreements — a Clean Trade and Investment Partnership.
South Africa will be the first nation to sign such an agreement with the EU. It will emphasize investments, the clean energy transition, skills and technology, and the development of strategic industries throughout supply chains – creating quality jobs in Africa. The leaders also agreed to extend their cooperation to critical raw materials.
To launch this new chapter in EU-South Africa relations, President von der Leyen announced a Global Gateway Investment Package worth €4.7 billion.
The majority of the package – €4.4 billion – will be invested in projects supporting a clean and fair energy transition in the country.
This is a major commitment within the context of the Scaling up Renewables in Africa campaign, launched by President von der Leyen and President Ramaphosa during the G20 Summit in Rio. Partnering with Global Citizen and backed by the International Energy Agency, the campaign will culminate with a major pledging event during the G20 Summit in Johannesburg.
The Global Gateway package also focuses on connectivity infrastructure – both physical and digital– and boosting the local pharmaceutical industry.
You can follow the press conference with President von der Leyen, starting at 15:40 CET, live on EBS. Her press statement will be available here.
A joint declaration will be published at the end of the summit here.
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