Opening remarks by President von der Leyen at the Mattei Plan Summit

European Commission -Speech Opening remarks by President von der Leyen at the Mattei Plan Summit Rome, 20 June 2025 Thank you very much, dear Giorgia, Dear friends, First of all, thank you for hosting us here in this stunning corner of the eternal city. It is a pleasure to be here with you, my friends, today. We are here to reaffirm Europe's strong commitment in a partnership together with Africa. And I would like to thank Italy for putting the cooperation with Africa at the heart of our action. The Mattei plan is a perfect example of how we shape together the Global Gateway. Global Gateway is an investment programme of the European Union of EUR 300 billion; EUR 150 billion of that goes to Africa. So this is Team Europe at work, and it is teamwork with Africa that we are showing today. Indeed, as you said, I want to thank our African partners for being here today because we share a common vision. We are working together in developing clean energy. This is a continent of abundance and abundance of resources. What is missing is the infrastructure, so we invest in the infrastructure for clean energy and modern economic corridors. Today we discuss how we are linking our digital markets, but also how, for example, to unlock the food value chain, but most importantly to add, to how to train people to develop the skills of the people in the region. Global Gateway is an investment agenda that combines public with private capital and the international financing...