Monday April 17, 2023
By Federica Pascale | EURACTIV.it
Meloni is the first leader of a Western government to visit Ethiopia since the truce that triggered the pacification process with the Tigray region. [EPA-EFE/STEPHANIE LECOCQ]
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni discussed Italy’s so-called Mattei Plan, which focuses on cooperation on energy and curbing migration flows from Africa, as she visited Ethiopia on Friday and Saturday.
Meloni was welcomed in Addis Ababa by Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali and then met with African Union President Moussa Faki Mahamat on Friday.
On Saturday, Somalia’s President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud held a trilateral meeting.
The talks focused on cooperation between Italy, Ethiopia, and Somalia, stability in the Horn of Africa, and migration to Europe.
“There is the support that this nation needs, particularly financially,” Meloni told the press.
“We are dealing with it, just as we are doing […] in Tunisia, to support the unblocking of financing and support a financial certainty that then allows for further investment. It is a very sensitive issue,” she added.
Meloni is the first leader of a Western government to visit Ethiopia since the truce that triggered the pacification process with the Tigray region – a bitter two-year civil conflict that has interrupted the country’s growth path.
The Horn of Africa “is crucial and sensitive for us,” said Meloni. According to Ansa, it is a region home to 823,000 refugees and 4.2 million displaced people, partly also because of the drought emergency, which is fueling migratory flows to Europe.
The Meloni government intends to pursue the Mattei Plan, about which little is yet known.
Meloni has spoken of it since taking office as a “virtuous model of collaboration and growth” between the EU and African countries, intending to counter Islamist radicalism, promote social stabilisation, and support economic development by investing in strategic sectors such as energy.
The Italian executive’s priority objectives, as far as national interests are concerned, are twofold: to become an energy hub for Europe, serving as a platform in the Mediterranean for the disposal of raw materials, and to curb migratory flows, which in recent months have sent the reception hotspots into a tailspin.
“I think that the Mattei Plan produces much more than the effort it requires for the Italian national interest, for the European interest, for the stability of a continent on which perhaps in recent years we have not done enough”, she added.
Since becoming prime minister, Meloni visited Algeria and Libya, always together with Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi, who signed important gas collaboration agreements.
The Mattei Plan will be presented in detail at the Italy-Africa intergovernmental summit in October. “We are working on it, listening and involving African countries,” Meloni said.
Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani (FI/EPP) recently said a “Marshall Plan” is needed to grow the African continent, “address the problems of climate, war, hunger” and curb the waves of migration to the EU.
Tajani also warned Europe that if it does not invest, China and Russia will come in and “look at Africa as a continent to be colonised, while we look at it as a friendly continent.”