EU pledges EUR 25bn to build 15 GW of green power in the Middle East and North Africa by 2035

EU pledges EUR 25bn to build 15 GW of green power in the Middle East and North Africa by 2035 Brussels wants to import renewable power and hydrogen from its southern neighbours, betting geopolitical risk now justifies funding the cross-border infrastructure. The European Commission said on Tuesday (2026-06-09) it wants to help build 15 GW of green energy capacity across the Middle East and North Africa by 2035, backed by a EUR 25bn fund, and to expand cross-border electricity and hydrogen links into Europe.⁶ The plan puts public money behind a supply route Brussels has discussed for years without funding at scale. It pairs generation built abroad with the interconnectors and hydrogen pipelines needed to carry it north, the leg that has repeatedly stalled. Fifteen gigawatts is a real slug of capacity, but spread to 2035 it reads as an ambition, not a delivery schedule.⁶ The timing tracks a shift in tone. EU competitiveness commissioner Teresa Ribera said in May (2026-05-21) that geopolitical volatility would "absolutely" accelerate the renewables push, arguing the Middle East war had exposed the risks of fossil-fuel dependence.² The Commission is now trying to turn that argument into contracted capacity beyond its borders.⁶ For gas traders the read-through is slow but real. Anything that durably lifts European renewable supply, whether built inside the bloc or imported as power and hydrogen, erodes the marginal call on gas-fired generation over the next decade. ICE Endex TTF front-month traded around EUR 49.26 on Tuesday (2026-06-09), barely changed on the day, and a 2035 capacity plan does nothing to the prompt.⁶ The signal sits at the back of the curve, not the front.⁶ The hydrogen leg is the harder sell. Europe's electrolyser and import ambitions have repeatedly run ahead of final investment decisions, and a fund commitment is not a delivered molecule. Linking North African solar to European hydrogen demand needs pipelines, offtake contracts and a price buyers will actually pay, none of which the announcement settles.⁶ Private capital is moving the same way, which lends the plan some credibility. Morocco has built out solar aggressively and is positioning itself as a green hydrogen and sustainable-shipping hub, helped by its proximity to Europe, oilprice.com reported (2026-05-30).⁵ In Saudi Arabia, ZOE Energy Storage has formed a joint venture to build the kingdom's first large-scale battery plant, with an initial 6 GWh phase due to start in the first quarter of 2027, power-technology.com reported (2026-05-26).⁴ There is a competing supply story. China's solar exports to the global south rose 32% to 126 GW, overtaking shipments to the global north for the first time, the Economist reported (2026-05-19), and Chinese green-tech firms have pledged $200bn of overseas investment since 2022.³ The Commission's southern-neighbourhood plan is partly an effort to anchor that buildout to Europe rather than cede the region's capacity to Chinese-financed projects.⁶ The risk is familiar. Generation in the desert is cheap; moving the electrons or molecules to a European load centre is not. Cross-border links between the two regions are scarce, and the hydrogen corridors largely do not yet exist. A EUR 25bn fund seeds the equity but does not finance the full transmission bill.⁶ Industry incentives are at least aligned. The Middle East war is likely to push European buyers toward long-term power purchase agreements after recent price spikes and supply jitters, industry participants told Montel (2026-05-21).¹ That same hedging instinct supports demand for firm, contracted renewable supply from outside the bloc.¹ The test is whether the EUR 25bn converts into signed interconnector and hydrogen-link projects with named counterparties, or stays a headline number. The capacity target is dated to 2035, but the infrastructure decisions that determine whether any of it reaches Europe will come far sooner. Until a specific cable or pipeline reaches financial close, this is intent, not supply.⁶