Remarks by Federica Mogherini at the press point following the meeting with Bill Gates

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Bill [Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation], it has really been a pleasure and an honour for me to welcome you here in Brussels in the EU institutions. It was a pleasure and extremely interesting to hear from you about the amazing work that the Foundation is doing on so many of the things we share, especially the work on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Development is the best investment for Europeans in our own security and stability. We are both heading to the Munich Security Conference and we shared, I think, the assessment of the fact that the best way of building security for our own citizens is investing in development in the rest of the world.

I am told sometimes that I am too optimistic, but I think I have company here which is good. You mentioned several times the fact that trends in the world seem to be negative, but in reality there are so many things that are improving in terms of living conditions, decrease of children mortality for instance. So we see that change can happen – is already happening - but it requires us to work really hard and together to achieve that.

I think we share with the Gates Foundation and with you personally the same attitude: focus on cooperation and partnership and focus on improving peoples’ lives, not because it is the good thing to do - it is also the good thing to do - but it is also the smart thing to do also for ourselves.

I had the opportunity to share with Bill Gates the details of the work that the European Union is doing; we are by far, together with the Member States, the first provider of humanitarian aid, development assistance, but also we are the major economic actor in the world, not only in Africa but also in the rest of the world.

We are now developing our work even further with the launch of the [European] External Investment Plan where we are trying to bring in the private sector and your foundation is obviously one of the interlocutors that have more value for us in this work we are doing in trying to mobilise the private investments in the most fragile places, in particular in Africa aimed at reaching the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

This – and I close here – means, again, working together – private, public; Europe and others, including the United States -, and having the European Union as a reliable partner. For everybody in the world we will continue to be there, we will continue to be the major investment and donor worldwide, in particular for poverty reduction and for reaching the Sustainable Development Goals; we will continue to be a pillar of the UN system and a point of reference for NGOs, foundations that have this as the main objective.

So, Bill, once again thank you very much for being here with us!

Q&A

Q: I have two questions for both of you. I just want to know how much progress is made on the development programs that Bill Gates is conducting in Africa, because you are involving in health, in economics. What challenges have you faced and how progress is made? And to Ms Mogherini, how much is the EU cooperating in facilitating for private sector, probably in the political and governance aspects because these aspects are very important for the achievement of the private sector and for the development and for the achievement of sustainable goals?

For my part of the question, first of all, the [European] External Investment Plan provides a financial guarantee for the private sector to go in and invest in the most fragile areas which are also the ones that needed the most and that is a relevant value. We expect to leverage €44 billion for investments in Africa by 2020. Sometimes I hear about the need for a Marshall Plan, maybe this is a European plan, but the magnitude is quite relevant.

But you are right: it is not only the money, and it is not only the financial guarantee, it is also the work we will do and we are doing to accompany investments. Because we know very well that business sector finds difficulties in investing in places where governance is not so strong, relating with administrations that might face themselves problems - issues of corruption, issues of infrastructure, business environment. So the European Union is not only institutions here in Brussels, we have 140 embassies around the world, we are present in all African countries and we coordinate in every African country also the embassies and the huge presence of all our Member States in Africa.

So it is the European Union and the Member States present on the ground ready to accompany the private investments and aim them at the development, not only for purposes of businesses, but also for the improvement for the living conditions on the ground and the aiming at reaching the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). So, it is matching private investment, the business environment, the contact with governments, also facilitating the understanding of where, and how, and when and with whom this is possible to be done locally and accompanying this, because we understand very well for a private corporate, investing is not necessarily familiar, might be a complicated one, especially if you are not a big, big company.

So, it is going to be beneficial also for European businesses, because there is a big market out there, if you are looking to the demography of Africa that is quite clear. So it is beneficial for Africa, it is beneficial for the SDGs, it is beneficial for our security, for managing migration flows in the long term. We have to look 10, 20, 30 years ahead, as starting investing now and also for the European economy.

Q. The US is still the bigger aid donor as a single country in the world. Many people fear there will be maybe a retreat from that over the next few years. Are you one of those of fears about America’s soft power role in the world?

[adding to Bill Gates reply] I am just heading now to Bonn for the G20 Foreign Ministers’ meeting where the main focus will be exactly Africa and I think in Europe there is this awareness that this is not just charity and generosity; this is an investment in our own security and I think this is the way in which we have to try and tackle this also after a long time of economic crisis. You see European investments in development going up and I think this is because we are realising that this is the way of managing and preventing also problems for us.