Europe has a new pitch for Haiti: investments, partnerships over aid
The European Union is one of the few foreign donors that provides direct budget support to Haiti’s government. Now after years of relying on that traditional model of assistance, European countries are seeking to redefine the relationship by introducing the bloc’s flagship global investment initiative to Haiti and its entrepreneurs.
“Here in Haiti, with all the crises and the security situation, we have followed a traditional cooperation scheme,” said Hélène Roos, the European Union’s ambassador to Haiti. “But now, when we’re hoping for …some improvement on the security side, I think it’s time to talk about investments.”
“We shouldn’t wait. We should start now to put people in contact,” she said, adding that Haitian and European partners need to begin building relationships.
The first step comes Monday, when the European Union, at the request of Haiti’s private sector, will host a conference in Port-au-Prince introducing its Global Gateway investment strategy. The event is intended not only to explain the worldwide initiative but also to show Haitian entrepreneurs and businesses how they can participate by developing projects in sectors such as climate resilience, infrastructure, seaports and renewable energy.
Among the featured speakers will be Jacques Attali, the renowned French economist, social theorist and former presidential adviser. Attali, who will address the conference remotely, is also the author of 86 books.
‘Trade over aid’
Launched in 2021, Global Gateway is often described as Europe’s answer to China’s Belt and Road Initiative, Beijing’s controversial signature foreign policy and development programs that several countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have turned to finance roads, ports, and other projects. Roos prefers a different description of Europe’s efforts.
“It is a worldwide investment strategy for building a beneficial partnership and mobilizing public and private resources” to help close global investment gaps, she said of Global Gateway. “It’s quite successful all over the world.”
The European Union originally set a goal of mobilizing 300 billion euros in public and private investment between 2021 and 2027. Last fall, the European Commission announced that the target had already been met and raised its ambition to 400 billion euros.
Europe has allocated 340 million euros to Haiti to implement development projects before 2028 and another 25 million to 40 million a year in humanitarian assistance. European member states have also pledged 64 million euros to the United Nations Trust Fund for the new Gang Suppression Force to help the security forces take back territory from armed groups. Meanwhile, 10 million euros also go to fund the Haiti National Police.
While the funds help keep the country afloat, they haven’t necessarily helped build or mobilize the kinds of partnerships that are necessary to help Haiti build long-term sustainable development. That’s where Roos, who has promoted such partnerships in other diplomatic postings come in.
When she arrived in Port-au-Prince, one of her first priorities was to tell Haitian officials that Europe’s approach to assistance was changing. Rather than relying primarily on traditional aid, the European Union wants to leverage public financing to attract more private investment for infrastructure and other development needs.
“It represents really, a paradigm shift in our international cooperation,” she said. “The idea is to expand this approach by moving toward more strategy, investment logic focusing on leveraging public and private capital, and we are mobilizing all member states in this.”
The strategy combines European Union grants with loans from public financial institutions such as the European Investment Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Technical assistance is also available to help governments and businesses identify, design and structure investments, she said.
“That’s the way we’ve proposed our partners in Haiti to work,” Roos said.
Haiti’s business community has long been criticized for monopolistic practices and a reluctance to collaborate. While a younger generation of entrepreneurs has shown greater interest in partnerships, many established business leaders continue to favor tightly controlled networks.
Such obstacles became clear last year when the European Union found itself trying to broker a yearslong unresolved dispute involving a European investor whose proposed $60 million expansion of Terminal Varreux has stalled amid disagreements with Haitian authorities over administrative approvals. The dispute prompted the European Union to raise broader concerns about competition at Haiti’s seaports and longstanding restrictions on where customs officials can process cargo arriving in Port-au-Prince.
Roos declined to discuss the dispute, preferring instead to highlight what she sees as encouraging signs: growing interest among Haiti’s chambers of commerce in Global Gateway and the government’s recent emphasis on “trade over aid.”
Finding opportunities in Haiti
That was also the message this week in Paris, where some Haitian business leaders traveled for a weeklong economic forum exploring investment opportunities between Haiti and the French Caribbean. The conference was organized by Senator Micheline Jacques of Saint-Barthélemy in partnership with Institute Macaya, a network of Haitian business leaders and entrepreneurs.
Jean-Paul Faubert of Institute Macaya said with most of the discussion around Haiti focused on the insecurity, “people do not talk enough about the provinces” and the investment opportunities that exist in those areas.
The gathering in Paris, he said, was “an opportunity to educate the people about Haiti” and explore investment opportunities. “They will come with their know-how, funding from Europe and can produce stuff in partnership with Haitian companies to serve not only the Haitian market” but they can also export to the islands at cheaper costs.
“The idea is to start talking,” Faubert said. “There will be opportunities in Haiti going forward, and they are worth looking at.”
This is also the same message, Roos hopes to convey on Monday. Through examples of other projects like renewable energy in Bolivia and sargassum management in the Caribbean, she wants to get Haitians to start thinking about how they can come together to bring about long-term development in the country.
“We want to make a shift” she said, adding that Europe believes that with Haiti’s human capital and improved governance, the country can move forward. “That is our interest, to have a strong, stable Haiti.”
“There is a momentum,” Roos added. “Now the proposal is to see if we can work together in order to make this momentum a success, and we are ready to do that.”
This story was originally published June 26, 2026 at 1:42 PM.
