The EU and South Africa have held their first government-to-government dialogue at senior official level to start implementing their Clean Trade and Investment Partnership (CTIP).
The talks focus on three areas — flagship projects, improving the business environment, and regulatory cooperation on climate and energy, the European External Action Service (EEAS) announced on Monday.
On projects, the dialogue will cover South Africa’s expansion of its electricity grid, renewable energy, sustainable aviation fuels, critical raw materials and green hydrogen.
Green hydrogen is produced using renewable electricity rather than fossil fuels, while “critical raw materials” refers to minerals and metals used in technologies such as batteries and wind turbines.
The EU will support South Africa’s plan to build about 14,500 km of new electricity transmission lines over the next decade.
What the partnership covers
The business environment strand will involve sharing information on recent regulatory processes and providing clarifications to industry, the EEAS said.
On regulation, the two sides will work on aligning approaches, standards and implementation frameworks linked to climate and energy.
The CTIP was signed in November 2025 and is intended to support trade, investment and job creation while backing decarbonisation and clean supply chains.
A first business-to-government dialogue under the partnership was held in March this year to gather companies’ views and priorities.
Trade between the EU and South Africa totalled €45 billion in 2025, and the EU accounted for more than 40% of foreign direct investment in South Africa.
