Working Better Together in a Team Europe Approach

The Global Gateway communication strategy, endorsed by all EU Member States in April 2023, provides the framework for all communications by actors following a Team Europe approach. By focusing on promoting transformational priorities with one voice, communication will be more effective in building and strengthening awareness and positive perception of Global Gateway among selected target audiences.

Since Global Gateway is the EU’s positive offer of cooperation to our partner countries in support of their own strategic autonomy, the communication and visibility of working better together in a Team Europe approach should primarily be focused on Global Gateway’s priority investment sectors of digital, climate and energy, transport, health and education and research⁴⁵.

Ensuring effective communication about Global Gateway in a Team Europe approach requires a strong process of coordination in Brussels, in Member States’ headquarters, with the EBRD and EIB, and in partner countries. It requires an approach that involves all of the EU, and a similar whole-of-government approach should be taken by Member State institutions (e.g. all relevant ministries, development agencies, DFIs, export credit agencies) and there should be close collaboration with the private sector.

The Commission services will convene regular meetings between Global Gateway communication focal points in Member State capitals and from all actors following a Team Europe approach, to discuss upcoming communication milestones, messaging, and the resources needed to implement this strategy.

It is strongly recommended to replicate this coordination network at country level, bringing together EU Delegations with Member State embassies, their development agencies and finance institutions, the EIB, the EBRD and the European private sector where they are present on the ground. Strategic communication should be included as a regular agenda point in meetings between the EU and Heads of Mission and political officers.

The organisation of joint missions, joint political engagements and joint participation in high-level and investment events in partner countries has the potential to reinforce strategic communication on Global Gateway through a Team Europe approach. EU Delegations and Member State embassies have a key role to play in identifying the most relevant milestones for joint missions to be organised and for coordinated communication efforts. EU Delegations should inform INTPA.02 well in advance of planned strategic communication events.

Global Gateway flagship projects

Successfully communicating the Global Gateway offer goes beyond a single flagship. It requires a more holistic and coherent approach. As such, as a general rule, communication budgets are no longer included in individual flagships, projects and programmes. Instead, a strategic communication envelope has been developed in each cooperation facility at country and regional level to showcase the EU’s offer in the country/region.

Strategic communication by all actors following a Team Europe approach should focus on a limited number of Global Gateway flagship projects, and the TEIs that these belong to, which demonstrate the EU’s unique added value and illustrate the transformative and positive impact of our action.

As per the Global Gateway communication strategy, the following steps should be taken by all actors following a Team Europe approach:

• A rolling agenda of key communication milestones should be developed, focusing on high-profile flagship announcements, including political-level joint missions by all actors following a Team Europe approach, and other external hooks such as summits and the EU’s response to global and regional developments. High-quality ‘evergreen’ content should be developed to maintain the visibility and momentum of Global Gateway flagships between these key milestones. Content will vary from classical outreach to social media and should always be tailored to the target audience and the channels used, based on relevant research.
• To address the significant gap between the reality of the EU’s global role and public awareness and perception of that role, professionally designed and managed communication campaigns should be implemented. The focus should be on using local voices and existing channels to demonstrate the renewed partnership.
• Dedicated outreach to European economic operators, including SMEs, should be undertaken to explain how economic operators can access up-to-date information on how they can participate in Global Gateway- related projects.
• Consistent use of the Global Gateway brand by all actors following a Team Europe approach on all initiatives falling under the scope of Global Gateway. Global Gateway is the European Union’s external brand. The Team Europe approach is central to this brand: it is at the heart of the brand purpose, mission and values, and a key differentiator that makes Global Gateway unique. A key element of the Global Gateway brand is its visual identity, which ensures a consistent look and feel. When communicating about issues falling within the scope of Global Gateway, all actors following a Team Europe approach should use the Global Gateway visual identity. This includes co-branding options designed to ensure the visibility of actors following a Team Europe approach. The Global Gateway visual identity guidelines can be found in the Communication Resources section of the Global Gateway webpages⁴⁶. The previous Team Europe branding should not be used.

Non-Global Gateway TEIs and wider communication on activities under the Team Europe approach

The above principles apply equally to non-Global Gateway TEIs. For TEIs falling outside the scope of Global Gateway, actors following a Team Europe approach should continue to prominently use the #TeamEurope hashtag⁴⁷, EU emblem and EU Member States’ national flags or implementing agency logos as relevant. In the Western Balkans and the Neighbourhood, the #EIP hashtag should also be used whenever relevant.

When communicating about Team Europe Initiatives, joint programming and joint implementation, consider including messaging on how actors following a Team Europe approach as a whole are supporting partner countries or regions in achieving development objectives, for instance, on the SDGs. In this context, colleagues can draw on the official development assistance (ODA) infographics produced each year by DG INTPA for every country and region (via the Team Europe Explorer^47bis) - see the example from Kenya below⁴⁸.

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45 At the country level, communication and visibility should also align with and draw on the content of the multiannual communication and public diplomacy strategies which the Delegations prepared in 2022
46 https://international-partnerships.ec.europa.eu/policies/global-gateway/communication-resources
47 Use GG blue colour, where feasible, as well as the Noto Sans Bold font for the hashtag. The font is downloadable at: https://fonts.google.com/noto/specimen/Noto+Sans
47bis ‘See the Team Europe Explorer (a one-stop shop for funding information, https://team-europe-explorer.europa.eu), the OECD Creditor Reporting System in the OECD Data Explorer (https://data-explorer.oecd.org/), the International Aid Transparency Initiative site (https://iatistandard.org/en/) and TOSSD.online (https://tossd.online/)
48 Available on https://team-europe-explorer.europa.eu/oda/infographics