The EU has made also contributions to PPPs outside the EU. For example, the Global Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Fund is a PPP offering risk sharing and co-funding opportunities for commercial and public investors in developing countries. Currently funded by the European Commission and the German and Norwegian governments, it will invest in private equity funds that specialise in providing equity finance - financing in return for shareholdings - to small and medium-sized regional projects and enterprises. In the enlargement process the EC has also participated in PPPs through programmes such as ISPA and Phare. Guidelines were elaborated to this effect in 2003 to address issues of concern for external cooperation27.
In negotiations with our trade partners, the European Commission seeks to enlarge transparency and obtain market access commitments for PPP as it does with traditional public procurement contracts when dealing with government procurement in free trade and other bilateral agreements. The most recent achievement in this respect is the inclusion of Build Operate Transfer (BOT) contracts and work concessions in the FTA to be concluded with South Korea. This is also the case in negotiations with third countries, which are party to the WTO Government Procurement Agreement (GPA).
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27 http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/sources/docgener/guides/ppp_en.pdf.