At the Global Gateway Forum, European Commissioner for International Partnerships Jutta Urpilainen and Minister for Foreign Affairs of Costa Rica, Arnoldo André Tinoco, have made significant strides in strengthening the EU-Costa Rica partnership. This marks the launch of the EU-Costa Rica Cooperation Facility, which demonstrates the European Union’s commitment to supporting the implementation of the Global Gateway Investment Agenda presented at the EU-CELAC Summit. The €11 million Facility is aimed at fostering the partnership between Costa Rica and Team Europe to ensure quality investments in meaningful and secure connectivity, health resilience, sustainable transport, sustainable finance, and agriculture and fishing.
Under Global Gateway, the EU’s positive offer to deliver trusted and sustainable connections with partner countries, both Costa Rica and the EU underscored their commitment to a more sustainable and interconnected world.
Commissioner Urpilainen said: “The European Union’s Global Gateway Strategy is about more than just infrastructure development. It’s about creating a better future in our partner countries and Costa Rica. These projects align with our vision for greener, more connected, and economically empowered EU and Costa Rica. They are a testament to the strength of our partnership and a more sustainable, prosperous tomorrow for our partners.”
Minister André Tinoco said: “In an increasingly interconnected world, security cooperation, health resilience, and sustainable transport are fundamental pillars. Costa Rica has engaged with the Global Gateway Initiative of the European Union which strengthens our partnership based on common values and aspirations.”
The EU’s cooperation priorities with Costa Rica were launched in June 2023 by Commissioner Urpilainen. These run until 2027 to strengthen EU-Costa Rican cooperation and were prepared jointly with Ministries of Foreign Affairs and of National Planning and Economic Policy. The EU and Costa Rica will focus this new effort on three common priorities:
- Decarbonisation – including renewable energy and transport electrification
- Digital transformation and innovation
- Support to refugees and migration issues.
Advancing secure and inclusive connectivity for Costa Rica
The European Union and Costa Rica exchanged on plans to set up a 5G testbed project and a cyber-intelligence and forensic laboratory in collaboration with the EU Member States and private sector. These initiatives reflect the shared vision of the European Union and Costa Rica in advancing secure, resilient and inclusive digital connectivity, ensuring that state-of-the-art technology can benefit all citizens and enterprises in Costa Rica. A testbed is the phase where engineers analyse machine-to-machine 5G communication before a commercial rollout. This allows them to get a sense for how the network is performing in a reasonable approximation of real-world applications before it is introduced to customers.
Prioritising Health and Wellbeing in Costa Rica
At the forum, the European Union and the European Investment Bank (EIB) launched a new partnership, which seeks to accelerate human development through innovative health financing, with Costa Rica as a key partner in Latin America and the Caribbean. As part of this partnership, the partners are interested in analysing gaps, identifying priorities, and fulfilling the manufacturing needs for safe, quality, effective, and affordable vaccines, medicines, and health technologies in Costa Rica. Special attention will be given to aligning training and education initiatives with the private sector.
Advancing E-Mobility and Sustainable Transport
The EU and Costa Rica reiterated commitment to promoting sustainable transportation. Through the Cooperation Facility, the EU will support Costa Rica in the transitions towards electrical mobility solutions including e-buses, by assisting in the creation of dedicated education products to boost local employment opportunities at all levels. This initiative not only addresses the pressing need for sustainable transport but also promotes environmental conservation and the reduction of carbon emissions. Furthermore, the EIB is assessing potential opportunities to contribute to the electrification of the bus fleet.
Sustainable Finances for Costa Rica
Both the European Union and Costa Rica hold strong shared ambitions to scale up public and private capital towards sustainable investments, which is key to delivering on the Paris Agreement objectives and the Sustainable Development Goals. Commissioner Urpilainen and Minister André Tinoco confirmed interest in a comparison study between the EU taxonomy and Costa Rica’s upcoming taxonomy. This will enhance interoperability and provide domestic and EU investors with clarity about commonalities and differences between the two taxonomies. This will contribute to fostering green financial flows from the EU to Costa Rica. The European Commission also stands ready to support Costa Rica in scaling up its green bond market and strengthening its sustainable finance frameworks through, respectively, the EU Global Green Bond Initiative and the Sustainable Finance Advisory Hub.
Sustainable Agriculture and Fishing
The EU will support sustainable production and blue economy to accelerate and scale up the move towards bio-inputs, organic certification and production, low carbon value chains and a more circular approach to agriculture and fisheries. Costa Rica and France will co-host the UN Ocean Conference in 2025.
Background
The Global Gateway Investment Agenda (GGIA) for Costa Rica was launched at the EU-CELAC Summit, ushering in a new era of economic development and cooperation. The Global Gateway Investment Agenda for Costa Rica signifies a strategic blueprint for mutual prosperity and investment in a broad array of sectors, further solidifying the EU-Costa Rica partnership.
The Global Gateway Forum brings together for the first time an assembly of government representatives from the European Union and across the globe, alongside key stakeholders from the private sector, civil society, thought leaders, financial institutions, and international organisations to promote global investment in transformative infrastructure – hard and soft- to deliver on SDGs.
Global Gateway is the EU’s positive offer to reduce the worldwide investment gap and boost smart, clean and secure connections in digital, energy and transport sectors, and to strengthen health, education and research systems.
The Global Gateway strategy embodies a Team Europe approach that brings together the European Union, EU Member States, and European development finance institutions. Together, it aims to mobilize up to €300 billion in public and private investments from 2021 to 2027, creating essential links rather than dependencies, and closing the global investment gap.
More Information
Global Gateway Forum
Global Gateway
EU-Costa Rica: Global Gateway project examples
