Energy deals in exchange for curbing immigration. Italy’s hardline Giorgia Meloni is unveiling her long-term development plan for Africa this weekend, a “non-predatory” approach that critics warn favors European priorities and pockets.
Prime Minister Meloni, who came to power in 2022 on an anti-immigrant ticket, hopes to position Italy as a key bridge between Africa and Europe, channeling energy to the north while exchanging investment in the south for deals aimed at preventing migration .
Leaders of several African countries are expected in the Italian capital for a summit on Sunday and Monday, along with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and representatives of United Nations agencies and the World Bank.
Meloni’s so-called Mattei design is named after Enrico Mattei, the founder of Eni — Italy’s state-owned energy giant.
In the 1950s, he advocated a cooperative attitude towards African countries, helping them develop their natural resources.
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“A certain paternalistic and predatory approach has not worked so far. What needs to be done in Africa is not philanthropy but strategic partnerships, as equals,” Meloni, 47, said earlier this month.
Rome holds the presidency of the G7 group of nations this year and has pledged to make African development a central issue, in part to increase influence on a continent where powers such as China, Russia, India, Japan and Turkey have expanded their political influence.
Experts have warned that Italy may struggle to get key support for a new deal from the European Union, which has unveiled its own 150 billion euro ($160 billion) package for Africa in 2022.
Meloni’s government, which cut funding for foreign aid cooperation last year, has officially allocated a more modest amount of 2.8 million euros a year from 2024 to 2026 for the Mattei Plan, the details of which are scant.
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However, Italy’s best-selling newspaper Corriere della Sera reported that the government could allocate four billion euros to the plan over the next five to seven years.
The programs are expected to include efforts to develop African agriculture and the mobilization of Italian transport companies and major projects.
But the biggest investment is expected in energy.
Natural resources
Meloni wants to turn Italy into an energy gateway, tapping into demand from other European countries seeking to reduce their dependence on Russian gas after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Critics say the plan seems too focused on fossil fuels.
Some Italian media have dubbed it the “Descalzi Project”, after Eni’s CEO, Claudio Descalzi.
Some 40 African civil society organizations warned this week that “the main objective of the plan is to expand Italy’s access to Africa’s natural gas for Europe and to strengthen the role of Italian companies in exploiting Africa’s natural and human resources.” ».
Dean Bhekumuzi Bhebhe, head of the Don’t Gas Africa campaign, said Rome’s “blind ambition… ignores the urgent climate crisis and the voices of African civil society”.
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Instead, they called for a renewable energy effort to meet the needs of the 40 percent of Africans who have no access to energy at all.
Francesco Sassi, an energy geopolitics researcher at the RIE think tank, told AFP Meloni was pursuing a “short-sighted” and “oversimplified strategy to address energy insecurity and the challenges of the energy transition”.
Its “apolitical” approach “also entails fewer intrusions into the internal politics of African energy partners, be it the defense of human rights or energy and environmental policies.”
Remote
While energy “may be the most relevant part” of Mattei’s plan, “Meloni is investing political capital in it mainly because of migration,” according to Giovanni Carbone, head of the Africa program at the Institute for International Policy Studies (ISPI) in Milan .
Despite a promise to stop migrant boats from North Africa, landings in Italy have risen under Meloni, from around 105,000 in 2022 to almost 158,000 in 2023.
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Italy is training the Libyan and Tunisian coastguards as part of an EU initiative.
The Mattei plan also aims to tackle so-called push factors and persuade countries of origin to sign readmission deals for migrants who refused to stay in Italy.
Experts warn that the initiative must be structured to last, in a country known for its chronic political instability.
Carbone questioned whether the government has the necessary knowledge or experience in African development to make the plan work.
“Italy has a tradition of relatively close relations with Mediterranean countries such as Tunisia, Libya, partly Algeria and Egypt as well, but less so with sub-Saharan Africa, which should be at the heart of the Mattei Plan,” he told the French Agency.
“Italy has mainly small and medium-sized enterprises, for which it would be a big step to consider investing in countries that are considered very remote and often problematic.”
Former Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi also looked at sub-Saharan African markets in 2014 to 2016, “but it turned out to be very difficult,” Carbone added.
Source: AFP