The European Commission’s plan for a €1 billion green hydrogen and raw materials partnership with Namibia is in jeopardy, after the southern African nation failed to sign a separate multicountry agreement Wednesday that allows the European Investment Bank to lend there.
Namibia was one of 35 countries in the 79-member Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States, or OACPS, which did not sign the “Samoa Agreement” in the Pacific island nation’s capital, Apia, on Wednesday. The agreement is a broad stroke cooperation pact between the European Union and OACPS with mostly aspirational language on topics like climate change, democracy, and migration. However, like its predecessor — the Cotonou Agreement — it also grants EIB license to operate in ACP countries.
Diederick Zambon, head of ACP, Latin America and Asia division at EIB Global, the bank’s overseas lending arm, told the closed meeting in Apia that should Namibia not sign the Samoa Agreement by the time it enters into provisional application at the end of this year, EIB would have no mandate to operate or sign new loans with the country.