African leaders gather for a summit in Rome on Monday where Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni will unveil her much-publicised plan to develop the continent, aimed at turning Italy into an energy hub and halting migration.
Meloni, who took power in 2022, hopes to make Italy a key bridge between Africa and Europe, channelling energy to the north and swapping investment in the south for deals to prevent migration.
Two dozen African leaders, top European Union and United Nations officials and representatives of international lending organisations travelled to Rome for the summit, the first major event of Italy’s G7 presidency.
Meloni’s so-called “Mattei Plan” is named after Enrico Mattei, the founder of Eni, Italy’s state-owned energy giant. In the 1950s, he advocated co-operation with African countries to help them develop their natural resources. Meloni told state-run RAI station:
“The basis of the Mattei Plan is a new approach – non-predatory, non-paternalistic but also not charitable. It’s an approach of equals, to grow together.”
Italian authorities have vowed to make Africa’s development a central theme of their G7 presidency. Experts warn that Italy may struggle to get key support for the new agreement from the European Union, which has unveiled its own €150bn ($160bn) aid package for Africa in 2022.
Meloni’s government, which last year cut funds for foreign aid co-operation, has officially allocated a more modest 2.8 million euros a year from 2024 to 2026 to implement the “Mattei Plan”. Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera reported that the government could allocate 4 billion euros over the next five to seven years to the plan.
The plan is expected to include efforts to develop African agribusiness and mobilise Italian transport and construction companies. However, the biggest investment is expected in energy.
Meloni wants to turn Italy into an energy gateway, capitalising on demand from European countries seeking to reduce their dependence on Russian gas after the war in Ukraine began in February 2022.
Some 40 African civil society organisations warned this week that “the main objective of the plan is to increase Italy’s access to African fossil gas for Europe and to strengthen the role of Italian companies in exploiting Africa’s natural and human resources”.
As part of the EU initiative, Italy is training Libyan and Tunisian coastguards.
