“It is arts more than science”. This is how Matthieu Muzumdar talked about a Global Gateway project in Jordan, during the latest European Investment Bank (EIB) Forum in March 2026. He was representing Meridiam, a French private fund who finances infrastructure projects across the world, such as highways, pipelines, desalination plants, etc. On the other hand, the EIB is a public bank, owned by EU countries, which lends money on favourable terms (cheaper or longer loans than private banks for instance). Its EIB Global department implements Global Gateway projects, the EU’s strategy to fund infrastructure projects outside its borders.
Meridiam has been successfully lobbying to receive Global Gateway funds. Indeed, a month before the EIB Forum, the EIB communicated its intention to contribute 100 million Euros to a Meridiam fund of €2,800 million to invest in Global Gateway infrastructure projects in EU neighbourhood countries. Meridiam is also a major stakeholder in Great Sea Interconnector. Meridiam is likely to benefit financially from this Global Gateway project to connect the elecricity grids of Greece, Cyprus and later Israel.
One potential lobby entry for Meridiam has been its membership of the Global Gateway Business Advisory Group. The group is, according to the European Commission, an informal expert body to allow Global Gateway to benefit from the business perspective in a structured way. This group meets regularly with high level decision-makers, including the president of the Commission Ursula von der Leyen. According to the business association BusinessEurope, being a member of this advisory board enables companies to “actively inform the Commission on business priorities and interests ensuring that the strategy takes into account the needs of the private sector.” It is thus highly likely that Meridiam actively informs the Commission of its business interests inside the Global Gateway business group.
On top of this, Meridiam also has the privilege of having regular meetings with the European Commission. From November 2025 to May 2026, Meridiam had three meetings with the same representative of the Commission working on Enlargement and Eastern Neighbourhood. In January 2026, Meridiam was updating the Commission representative on their activities in Turkiye and a month later, the EIB published its intention to participate with Meridiam in a fund for projects in neighbourhood countries, including Turkiye.
Meridiam thus receives financial support for Global Gateway projects, while also advising the Commission higher representatives on Global Gateway and regularly meeting people working in the Commission on Global Gateway. This places Meridiam in a highly privileged position. A position so close not to see a potential for conflicts of interest. Is it science more than lobbying? Or is it the arts of corporate capture?
