‘No added value’: MEPs to probe Africa’s flagship €5bn Lobito Corridor project in Global Gateway scrutiny

MEPs will hold a scrutiny hearing in January on the EU’s Lobito Corridor project , the flagship scheme of the bloc’s Global Gateway programme, amid growing concerns about the value and governance of the scheme.

The project is supposed to connect the port of Lobito on Angola’s Atlantic Coast to the mineral-rich Katanga province in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Copperbelt in Zambia.

The European Parliament’s development committee says that the hearing will look into whether the project is effective.

EU lawmakers have previously expressed concerns about the governance of Global Gateway, a plan to raise €300bn for infrastructure projects in developing countries that is widely seen as Europe’s response to China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the EU’s own urgent need to secure access to critical minerals.

The EU Commission says that more than €2bn has already been raised by the EU for the Lobito Corridor project, part of a joint €5bn plan with the United States, as part of close to €150bn in projects across Africa.

Benjamin Fox is our trade and geopolitics editor. His reporting has also been published in the Guardian, the East African, Euractiv, Private Eye and Africa Confidential, among others. He is based in Nairobi, Kenya, although he often reports from London.