The EU-Gabon relationship has consistently been dynamic, characterized by open and constructive exchanges. Amid Gabon's current political transition and its associated challenges, the EU is committed to remaining a reliable and attentive partner.

As Gabon prepares to define its new constitutional framework and approaches crucial electoral milestones, the EU is attentive to the needs expressed to create favorable conditions for free and fair elections and to monitor their integrity.

On October 10^th, 2024, the European Union, its Member States, and the Gabonese government held a Partnership Dialogue session. This meeting facilitated fruitful discussions on a wide range of topics, including bilateral relations and cooperation, political situation, governance, human rights, socio-economic conditions, climate, biodiversity, sustainable forest exploitation, fisheries, and collaboration in multilateral forums.

These in-depth discussions between the two parties enhanced mutual understanding and opened prospects for strengthening relations in areas of common interest. Participants agreed to maintain permanent dialogue on the various subjects addressed.

Through continuous dialogue with authorities, the EU promotes sustainable and long-term actions aligned with a shared strategic vision with Gabon on key sectors including the environment, biodiversity, infrastructure, investments, fisheries, and the support to local civil society organizations.

This partnership between the EU and Gabon enables to exchange on shared values such as good governance, respect for human rights, and environmental protection. Notably, the recent EU Regulation on Deforestation (adopted in April 2023) aims to reduce the EU's global impact—particularly through imports into the European market—on deforestation and forest degradation.

Attracting investments essential for the country's economic and social development is a key aspect of the cooperation between the European Union and Gabon. The Global Gateway strategy mobilizes EU institutions, EU Member States, European financial institutions, and the private sector to boost investments and support transformative projects in priority areas (such as green transition, digital transition, sustainable growth, decent job creation, health systems strengthening, and improvements in education and training).

In 2021, the European Union launched a new programming phase of its cooperation with Gabon, covering the period 2021-2027. For the first phase (2021-2024), the European Union mobilized 11 million euros through its Multi-Annual Indicative Programme framework (MIP). The EU MIP in Gabon focuses on three priority areas:

1. Green Transition, which aims to support and promote the green economy in ecologically valuable areas and facilitate financing for structural climate adaptation projects.
2. Sustainable Growth and Green Jobs, which seeks to support reforms and contribute to development of a business environment conducive to the creation of green jobs.
3. Governance, which aims to strengthen the governance framework related to the green economy.

These three priorities are designed to complement each other, providing a holistic approach to assist the government in diversifying the economy, creating jobs, and maintaining a vision of a sustainable, resilient, and low greenhouse gas-emitting economy.

To increase its means of actions beyond the national MIP allocation, the EU Delegation in Gabon has secured approximately 10 million euros through regional programs and projects specifically targeting Gabon. These include the NaturAfrica program, which contributes to biodiversity protection and socio-economic development of protected areas of the country, the Sustainable Ocean and Blue Economy in Central Africa (ODEBAC) program, supporting marine protected areas conservation and blue economy, and the Sustainable Wildlife Management (SWM) program enhancing wildlife management and zoonosis monitoring. Additional regional programs are under consideration to further facilitate and strengthen priority sectors such as service trade, maritime security, wildlife trafficking prevention, and sustainable green finance.

Furthermore, on June 29^th, 2021, the EU and Gabon signed a new protocol to the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreement (SFPA), granting EU vessels access to Gabonese waters for a five years period. This protocol aims to strengthen fisheries governance, marine environment protection, and support job creation and activities in the fisheries sector. The EU contribution to this new SFPA protocol is 2.6 million euros per year, supplemented by shipowners' contributions, license payments, and any excess catch fees.

Global Gateway represents the EU positive cooperation offer to partner countries to support their own strategic autonomy, by aligning common interests, increasing high-quality investments, and promoting sustainable financing. The Global Gateway strategy provides a qualitative superior alternative to other public offers, adhering to the European model of sustainable and transparent investment.

Global Gateway focuses on fields addressing current geopolitical challenges. It centers on five key sectors: digital, climate and energy, transport, health, education and research and it is implemented through the Team Europe approach. Thanks to this approach, Global Gateway reunites the EU, its Member States, and their financial and development institutions to mobilize the private sector to leverage investments for transformative impact.

In sub-Saharan Africa, Global Gateway operates through regional and national initiatives. The first outcome is the Africa-Europe investment package, aiming to boost sustainable public and private investments, create jobs for Africa's growing youth population, and support the continent's socio-economic, green, and digital transformation.

As part of this approach, several projects are currently under analysis or consideration in Gabon, such as the Transgabonais Rehabilitation Program – Phase II, a project for the construction of a waste sorting and valorization center, and projects aimed at strengthening the production and distribution of electrical energy.

In addition to the three pillars of the EU-Gabon MIP, measures are in place to support local Civil Society Organizations (CSOs). This includes strengthening Gabonese CSOs in technical, financial, and advocacy aspects, structuring networks or federations of CSOs, creating dialogue spaces between civil society and authorities, and sectoral governance.

Civil society and respect for human rights are fully integrated to EU-Gabon relations, across all cooperation areas. The EU provides financial support to enhance CSOs' capacities, ensuring their meaningful participation in the development, implementation, and monitoring of national policies.

Simultaneously, supporting civil society through thematic programs enables the EU to raise awareness and promote human rights issues within society, aligning with the European Commission 2012 Communication, “The roots of democracy and sustainable development: Europe's engagement with Civil Society in external relations”. This policy emphasizes a strengthened and strategic engagement with civil society, particularly local CSOs in partner countries. It also advocates for a strategic approach at the national level, encouraging the EU and partner countries to develop EU roadmaps for civil society engagement. These roadmaps aim to enhance the impact and visibility of the Union's actions, while ensuring coherence and synergy across all sectors of EU external relations. They are also intended to facilitate coordination and the exchange of best practices with Member States and other international actors, simplifying and harmonizing financial requirements.