Milan, Italy, June 20, 2025 (Lusa) - The President of the European Commission on Friday stressed in Rome the importance of the partnership between Europe and Africa, pointing to the Lobito Corridor as the "best example" of investment in infrastructure and highlighting its benefits for the Angolan economy.
Ursula Von der Leyen is today co-chairing, together with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, a summit on cooperation with Africa entitled “The Mattei Plan for Africa and the Global Gateway:” A joint effort with the African continent", in which the African continent is represented by the President of Angola, João Lourenço, currently acting president of the African Union, and also attended by leaders from Zambia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Tanzania, as well as institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank and the African Development Bank (AfDB).
In her opening speech, the President of the European Commission called for the alignment of the two investment strategies in Africa - the so-called Mattei Plan, proposed by Italy last year, and the Global Gateway initiative (Global Gateway), a €150 billion investment package launched in 2022 by the European Union, considering that both "were born to be collective endeavours" and "to address common challenges", with the aim of "seizing opportunities that serve all involved".
Considering that "there is a new dynamism in the way Africa and Europe work together", not least because their interests "are more aligned than ever", Von der Leyen highlighted, among the objectives of enhanced cooperation, "boosting clean energy production on both continents", "connecting digital markets and building modern economic corridors".
“For all this, we need investment […] We see that other countries around the world are reducing their funding. We think this is wrong. Attracting new investment to Africa is in both our interests. And today’s event shows that our approach is working,” she said.
Focusing on investment in “large-scale infrastructure”, which, she stressed, “is not just about building railways, bridges and dams”, but also means “investing in training local workers, because that creates skills and that is how knowledge is transferred”, resulting “in positive repercussions for all local economies in Africa”, Von der Leyen then stated that “there is no better example than the work done in the Lobito Corridor”.
This 830 kilometre railway structure will link Angola and Zambia through the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), creating a regional logistics hub for the transport of minerals and agricultural products.
“We launched it together at the G20 Summit in 2023. We have mobilised investments in railways and other modes of transport to connect the landlocked mining regions of the DRC and Zambia to Angola’s Atlantic coast. But the corridor is much more than a railway for the mining regions. Today, we are signing three financing agreements with Angola so that the whole country’s economy can benefit from the corridor,” she said.
“We will finance vocational training so that the Angolan people have the right skills for the jobs created by our investments. We will bring local food products to national and international markets. And we will promote tourism along the corridor. This generates local growth and jobs – along all value chains and across the entire economy,” she specified.
At the end of the meeting this afternoon, a joint press conference is scheduled to be held by Giorgia Meloni, Von der Leyen and João Lourenço.
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