Rome is hosting the "Italy-Africa" Summit on Monday, January 29, focusing on the "Mattei Plan for Africa." The "Plan" aims to be a "bridge for common growth."
Italy is joining other European countries with a strong interest in Africa. Their common concern is to halt so-called irregular migration flows by exploring viable alternatives for migrants in the countries of origin.
In this context, Italian authorities initiated the "Italy-Africa" Summit, welcoming heads of state and government from various African countries. Participants include Senegalese President Macky Sall, the Comorian President, and counterparts from the Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritania, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Tunisia, among others.
The Moroccan Head of Government is represented by its chief executive at the Summit. Aziz Akhannouch was received on Sunday evening in Rome by Italian President Sergio Matarella, along with participating heads of state and government.
The chosen theme for the Summit reflects Italy's ambitions: "A bridge for common growth." Under this slogan, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni announced a significant aid plan for the continent in exchange for increased cooperation on migration, an "equal-to-equal" approach that struggles to convince critics.
However, the major focus of the event is to present the "Mattei Plan," named after Enrico Mattei, founder of Eni (the Italian public energy giant), who in the 1950s advocated for a cooperative relationship with African countries, assisting them in developing their natural resources.
This plan "can rely on an initial endowment of over 5.5 billion euros, including credits, grants, and guarantees," stated Ms. Meloni, opening the conference, without specifying the timeframe for this amount.
Participating in the Summit, the Chairperson of the African Union (AU) Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, emphasized that "agriculture, infrastructure, environment, energy, health, education, and digitization are at the forefront of our priorities." However, he also mentioned that "we would have preferred to be consulted beforehand" on the plan, assuring that "Africa is willing to discuss the content and modalities of its implementation."
Italy, presiding over the G7 this year, has committed to making Africa's development a central theme of its mandate, partly to increase its influence on a continent where powers like China, Russia, Turkey, India, and Japan have expanded their political weight.
"It is essential to work in synergy to leverage Africa's abundant natural resources not only to further develop the continent, strengthen our partnership, but also and above all, to put an end to the often deadly migratory flows of Africans," stated Azali Assoumani, the Comorian President and current AU Chair.
Rome hopes to involve all these international actors in the implementation of its plan across various development areas such as education, healthcare systems, or water. However, experts suggest that Italy may struggle to obtain the support of the European Union, which has already presented a 150 billion euros aid plan for Africa in 2022.
For European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the Italian plan is "complementary" to that of the EU. Around forty African civil society organizations expressed concerns that the plan's objective might simply be to "increase Italy's access to African fossil gas for the benefit of Europe and strengthen the role of Italian companies in exploiting Africa's natural and human resources."
Regarding migration, the Mattei Plan aims to address so-called "incentive" factors and persuade countries of origin to sign readmission agreements for rejected migrants. Despite the Italian leader's commitments to halt boats from North Africa, migrant arrivals in Italy have sharply increased since her tenure, rising from about 105,000 migrants in 2022 to nearly 158,000 in 2023. Since the beginning of the year, nearly 100 migrants have already died or gone missing, as announced by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) on Monday.