Excellencies, colleagues,

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the EU and its Member States.

The Candidate Countries Türkiye, North Macedonia*, Montenegro*, Serbia*, Albania*, Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova, Bosnia and Herzegovina*, and Georgia align themselves with this statement.

And let me thank the PrepCom chairs, the Permanent Representatives of Austria and Mongolia, for convening us this week, and for circulating the zero draft of the outcome document.

Colleagues,

We are living through an unprecedented moment of multiple crises, which disproportionately affect poorer countries and the most vulnerable.

The EU remains acutely aware of this reality and of the needs of all our partners, including the Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDCs). Let me stress that we are not turning our back to those needs, consumed by other crises.  We remain one of the staunchest supporters of the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs. No country should ever have to choose between eradicating poverty, turbo-boosting transport and digital connectivity and trade, and building a socially just and prosperous, sustainable economy while fighting climate change.

The development and other challenges faced by LLDCs are well known and documented. So let me turn immediately on what we need to do, individually and collectively.

This is a development conundrum that clearly calls for more and more efficient allocation of financial resources on the path towards the SDGs. The EU is strongly committed to be at the forefront of the collective efforts to scale up resource mobilisation, with a focus on low income and vulnerable countries and communities – and we recognize the specific needs of the LLDCs.

Therefore, an essential element of our partnership is and shall remain the development of connections and transport corridors for the benefit of all people – the all-important and hopeful transition from “land-locked” to “land-linked.”

Global Gateway, the EU strategy to connect the world through sustainable investments and reliable partnerships, is our response to this objective. Through sustainable infrastructure investments, coupled with soft measures to improve the business climate and regulatory environment, GG will contribute to achieving SDGs worldwide.

And we are already well on our way. In Central Asia, the EU is financing satellite and broadband connectivity, and an Investors Forum was organised just last week in Brussels to foster investments in transport infrastructure and connectivity in the region. There, we made concrete commitments, together with Central Asian countries, to transform the Trans-Caspian Transport Corridor into a cutting-edge, multimodal, and efficient route, connecting Europe and Central Asia.

In the Caucasus, the EU is building a customs terminal and extending roads to facilitate regional trade. In Central and Southern Africa, we are investing in the Lobito Corridor to support trade and economic development in Angola, Zambia, and DR Congo. The EU is also supporting the N’Djamena-Douala corridor to improve connectivity between the Sahel and the gulf of Guinea.

We also need to address together desertification, climate change, and biodiversity loss. By mobilising more than EUR 700 million per year for the Great Green Wall project, we aim to help re-green the Sahel, engaging across sustainable agriculture, land restoration, and climate-resilient infrastructure.

The EU has also relaunched the indispensable dialogue with Latin America and Caribbean partners during 2023. After many years, the 3^rd EU-CELAC Summit was convened again. Among other things, the EU consolidated an important investment agenda, with specific programs on climate, energy, water and sanitation in Paraguay and Bolivia.

And there are many more examples.

Dear friends, numbers matter, because sometimes talk alone is easy and cheap. As Team Europe, we provided EUR 93 billion in ODA in 2022. The EU support is strong, also through leveraging other public and private resources, through blended financing and de-risking mechanisms and through favourable trade provisions. The European Investment Bank alone lent EUR 3 billion to the LLDCs from 2017 to 2021, supporting projects in 24 out of the 32 landlocked countries.

Dear colleagues,

The EU is closely following and supporting the work leading to the third United Nations Conference on LLDCs to be held in June in Rwanda. It will be a great celebration of joint partnership and vision. And it must result in an ambitious and action-oriented 10-year programme, the excellent draft of which we will start discussing this week.   

On the way forward, in all the years to come, the LLDCs can count on the continuous support of the European Union.

I thank you.