The European Union development chief warned that the bloc is struggling to confront China’s growing influence around the world as Beijing proves more flexible in providing infrastructure investment to countries in the Global South.
The European Union Commissioner for International Partnerships said Jutta Urpilainen, in an interview with the Financial Times newspaper The British government said that the complex bureaucracy and environmental and social conditions associated with European Union financing made it difficult for the bloc’s international investment strategy to balance China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
Urpilainen said: “We live in an era of geopolitical competition.” It’s true that we may not be the quickest partner. China has been very strategic. If you travel, for example, to Africa, you can see tangible results of cooperation with China, whether it is football stadiums, railways, ports or roads.”
Urpilainen admitted that EU partners also welcomed the upcoming investments. From Beijing, but she noted that Chinese companies often build projects that they also finance, and insisted that the EU was a better partner in the long term.
She added: "That partnership has caused great dependence on China." Our goal – and this is in our interest – is to enhance the flexibility, self-reliance and independence of partners (in the European Union). Mobilizing up to 300 billion euros of investments in infrastructure projects in low-income countries.
She explained that the initiative aims to establish international partnerships that avoid beneficiaries “depending” On donors, “so that we impose ourselves as donors and tell them what to do.”