Italy pitches migration, energy plan at Africa summit

 .Nearly 100 migrants die in Mediterranean in 2024

African leaders gathered yesterday at a Rome summit to hear Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni open a much-awaited Italy-Africa summit aimed at unveiling concrete projects of her ambitious plan to reset the relationships between Rome and the African continent, curbing illegal migration flows and turning Italy into a hub of energy supplies from Africa to Europe.

The summit dubbed “A bridge for common growth” had European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen and representatives of United Nations agencies and the World Bank in attendance.

Speaking at the Italian Senate in front of more than 20 African leaders and top representative of the European Union, Meloni started providing the first details of the Mattei Plan, named after the founder of Italy’s oil and gas giant company ENI.

In her opening speech, she cited as examples pilot renewable energy projects from Morocco to Ethiopia and Kenya, adding that they could be replicated in all African countries that will express interest into these new forms of investments.

The initial resources available to finance the plan total €5.5 billion ($5.95 billion), including credits and cooperation funds, the Italian premier said, sparking skepticism over the limited financial firepower.

Meloni stressed that the Mattei Plan will be based on “a new approach: not predatory, not paternalistic, but not charitable either,” and that it will start a new page in the relationships between Europe and the African countries, with economic and strategic partnerships among “equals.”

Over the past few months, the Meloni government – which has made stopping illegal migration to Italian shores one of its top priorities – had only revealed six macro areas in which its development plan for Africa would focus: education, food, water, agriculture, energy and infrastructure.

Meloni has also named Africa as a key theme of Italy’s G-7 presidency, which started in January, as part of its drive to “restore centrality to the Mediterranean.”

In the past year in government, however, she also sealed bilateral agreements with single countries, such as Tunisia and Albania, aimed at discouraging departures of migrants from North Africa and creating structures to process asylum applications outside the Italian territory.

Opposition parties and African organizations on Monday held protests to express their doubts over the real contents of the Mattei Plan.

According to them, despite the government’s slogans, it is inspired by a “neocolonial” approach that will end up exploiting Africa’s massive natural resources, without introducing new forms of development.

Criticism to Meloni’s approach also came from one of the first African speakers at the summit, African Union Commission chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat, who stressed that African countries would have liked to be consulted before Italy unveiled its plan for Africa.

Meloni defended the Italian plan in her final conclusions, saying that Monday’s summit was just a preliminary phase of discussion with the African partners, adding that it will be followed by specific programs of actuation and strict timelines for each cooperation project.

“This is not a closed box that we are imposing from above,” Meloni said. “It’s a plan of concrete and feasible objectives that will be achieved step by step.”

Meloni told them that Europe and Africa’s “destinies” were interconnected and she was determined to co-operate “as equals, far from any predatory temptation, but also from that charitable approach to Africa that is ill-suited to its extraordinary potential for development”.

Guests included African Union Commission chair, Moussa Faki Mahamat; Tunisian President, Kais Saied; Senegal President, Macky Sall, as well as the presidents of the Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Kenya, Mauritania, Mozambique and Zimbabwe.

Other countries, including Algeria, Chad, Egypt and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), were represented by ministers. AU’s Faki said Africa was “willing to discuss the content and implementation” of the plan but pointed out: “We would have liked to have been consulted beforehand.”

Meanwhile, nearly 100 migrants have died or disappeared in the central and eastern Mediterranean since the beginning of 2024, more than double the toll recorded last year during the same period, the U.N. migration agency said on Monday.

The comment was made at the Italy-Africa Conference in Rome attended by more than two dozen African leaders and European Union officials to discuss economic ties and ways to curb undocumented migration to Europe.

“The latest record of deaths and disappearances is a stark reminder that a comprehensive approach that includes safe and regular pathways… is the only solution that will benefit migrants and states alike,” said Amy Pope, director general of the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

IOM’s Missing Migrants Project found that 3,041 migrants were dead or went missing in the Mediterranean last year – a significant increase over the 2,411 toll in 2022.
Earlier this month, some 40 Tunisian migrants went missing after setting off in a boat toward the Italian coast. Tunisia has replaced Libya as a main departure point for Mediterranean crossings for people fleeing poverty and conflict.