Does the EU still care about ending global poverty? Because its Global Gateway has major problems

Does the EU still care about ending global poverty? 

The new UN Roadmap on eradicating poverty, published on Wednesday (22 April), tells a very different story about how to fight poverty than the one the European Commission has been telling us for years. 

From EU officials, we hear that development cooperation has not delivered. Poverty remains widespread. The traditional “donor-recipient relationship” must be a thing of the past. It has come up short, and it is not what Global South countries want. That “equal partnerships” centred on trade and investments is the way to go.

But is this the right path? When it comes to poverty reduction, what actually works? 

The EU’s bet is on the Global Gateway, a development model focused on generating ‘win-wins’, aimed at fostering economic growth and private sector investments in partner countries, while also bringing direct benefits for European citizens. But there are three major problems with this approach.

First, growth-dependent development strategies do not rise to the major challenges of the 21st century. Economic growth has become increasingly ineffective at reducing poverty, and it comes with inherent contradictions and social and environmental costs.

Second, the long-standing promise of turning “billions to trillions” – using public finance to mobilise private investment in sustainable development – has long been discredited.

There is little evidence that private finance can be mobilised at anything like the scale required, or that it can deliver meaningful results in sectors, such as water or primary education, and in countries, such as the Least Developed Countries (LDCs), where resources are needed the most. 

Third, development cooperation matters, but it was never meant to do the job alone. Ending the systematic value extraction from lower income countries — through things like cross-border corporate tax abuse, imbalanced trade and exorbitant borrowing costs — is also fundamental for poverty reduction. Neglecting these structural barriers and Europe’s role in them is, at best, a naïve oversight; at worst, a deliberate effort to maintain the status quo. 

So what does work?

The UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Olivier De Schutter, has just released a roadmap for eradicating poverty beyond growth.

Its proposals for international relations move away from the donor-recipient model too, but they have little to do with economic growth or attracting private capital. 

At its heart is the commitment to the rights of those living in extreme poverty. Not GDP growth. There is no gamble with the lives of present and future generations – the roadmap recognises that a shift beyond growth is necessary to prevent ecological breakdown and that an increase in GDP is not a precondition for combating poverty and inequalities.

It asks the basic, too often neglected question: what actually improves wellbeing?

Also central to the roadmap is reorienting public investment towards essential services, such as healthcare and education. There is no gamble with public money, no illusion of “billions to trillions”.

Instead, it makes the case for creating global conditions that restore the capacity of states to mobilise resources and respond to the needs of their populations.

It calls on high-income countries to express international solidarity by helping unlock vast existing global resources, for example through fair taxation, debt justice, equitable trade rules and the reallocation of Special Drawing Rights (the IMF’s reserve asset).

An uncomfortable truth

In doing so, the roadmap confronts Europe with an uncomfortable truth: the EU’s emphasis on “win-wins” can only go so far.

The growing fixation on “mutual benefits” reveals little appetite for supporting Global South priorities or anti-poverty strategies that do not translate into direct economic or geopolitical gains for Europe.

It places EU interests at the forefront and some of the roadmap’s fundamental proposals, such as rebalancing the global system or improving public provisioning in core sectors like education and water, further down the list. 

The starting point is no longer what works to reduce poverty, but rather what works for Europe and can still be framed as development cooperation.

The risk is that the EU will still contribute to poverty reduction – just enough to claim it still cares, but not nearly enough to make a meaningful difference.

As the EU looks to shift from the old “aid-recipient” dynamic toward international partnerships, the roadmap offers a powerful reminder of what is really needed to address global asymmetries and fight poverty within planetary boundaries.

This is not just another report to gather dust on a shelf. It offers sound, empirically grounded policy proposals. It is sobering and brings a sense of hope.

Negotiations on the EU’s next external action budget are ongoing, with the very essence of the EU’s development cooperation at stake. In a time of profound crises and shrinking aid budgets, spending the billions we have wisely has never been more critical. 

International cooperation, as envisioned in the roadmap, requires going far beyond narrowly defined self-interests. It requires real solidarity – the kind that puts the rights and dignity of people living in extreme poverty at the centre.

Whether the EU is still willing to do that is the true test of whether it remains serious about ending global poverty.