President Ursula von der Leyen, together with President António Costa, will attend the EU-South Africa Summit in Cape Town on 13 March, the first one since 2018. The Summit is an opportunity to reaffirm Europe's commitment to its unique partnership with South Africa, strengthen our strategic ties, and tackle global challenges together. It is also a key moment to support South Africa's G20 presidency and prepare for the EU-African Union Summit later this year.
European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen said: "The geopolitical landscape is shifting, making strong partnerships more important than ever. I'm going to Cape Town with one goal: to strengthen our unique relationship with South Africa across the board – taking our cooperation on trade, critical raw materials and clean energy to the next level, and bringing new investment under Global Gateway. My message: Europe values its partnership with South Africa, just as I value my friendship with President Ramaphosa. South Africa can count on Europe. And I know Europe can count on South Africa."
The EU and South Africa will discuss avenues to further strengthen trade and investment ties based on shared interests in clean technology and sustainable supply chains. In this context, President von der Leyen will also discuss how to take this thriving relationship forward under the EU's new generation of trade deals, focusing on investment cooperation, clean energy, skills and technology.
Strategic investments of mutual interests. At the Summit, President von der Leyen will announce an EU "Global Gateway Investment Package" with South Africa to boost mutually beneficial investments through grants and public and private loans from European and local financial institutions. The Global Gateway Investment Package is anchored in three building blocks that align with the shared priorities of South Africa and the EU:
- Supporting the Just Energy Transition with investments in green hydrogen projects, local processing and refining of critical minerals, development of local workforce skills and jobs for green economy.
- Strengthening connectivity infrastructure like transport corridors, including railways and ports (development of the strategic corridor North-South), clean logistics like grid-scale energy storage or public transport decarbonisation, and digitalisation by expanding affordable fibre networks and 5G infrastructure.
- Strengthening South Africa's vaccine production capacity and boosting local pharmaceutical value chains by enhancing the quality of pharmaceutical products and reinforcing skills on health and vaccines regulations.
This Global Gateway Investment Package will combine investments in infrastructure with support to the enabling environment, such as regulatory strengthening, capacity building, skills development, cooperation on research and development and sustainability standards.
In the context of the Summit, the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission and the South African Nuclear Medicine Research Infrastructure (NuMeRI) will also sign a collaboration agreement that aims to support South African hospitals to accelerate the diagnosis and treatment of cancer .
Background
The EU and South Africa have had a strong and positive relationship as international partners since the advent of South Africa's democracy in 1994. The EU is South Africa's biggest trading partner and leading foreign investor, accounting for approximately 47% of South Africa's total foreign direct investment (FDI) stock. Since 2007, the EU and South Africa have an established strategic partnership which serves to boost the bilateral relationship in all sectors.
The EU and South Africa work together in the field of science, technology and innovation (STI) to reach sustainable development goals , through the design of challenge-led STI roadmaps . Total EU funding to South Africa has reached over €3 billion, tackling a range of issues from energy to education, to civil society organisations, to unemployment, to health, to research and development.
More info on Global Gateway
Delegation of the European Union to the Republic of South Africa
Bilateral cooperation with South Africa
More info on the EPA
EPA SADC - Southern African Development Community | Access2Markets
EU trade relations with South Africa
The EU stands as South Africa's leading trade partner , offering a more diversified and balanced exchange than with any other global market – factsheet .
