Italy’s Prime Minister Georgia Meloni visited Ethiopia last week in a bid to shore up the country’s diplomatic and commercial relationships in Africa.
Meloni attended an Italy-Africa summit in Addis Ababa, two years after the previous summit was held in Rome, before addressing a meeting of the African Union (AU) at its headquarters in the Ethiopian capital.
In her address to the AU, Meloni said Italy aimed “to write a new chapter in the history of our relations [with Africa] and build a completely different cooperation model, based on trust and mutual respect.”
Meloni has placed considerable importance on Italy’s relationships in Africa. Her first foreign trip after becoming prime minister in October 2022 was to Algeria. It was followed by visits to Libya, Ethiopia and Tunisia.
As well as sensing commercial opportunities for Italy in Africa, she also views greater cooperation with Africa as a way to reduce migration flows from the continent to Europe, which was one of her key election pledges.
Energy focus
To this end, the Italian government has been working on a new strategic approach for several years, with the “Mattei Plan” for Africa being launched in January 2024. The initiative proposed Italy constructing new pipelines to North Africa that would allow Rome to export natural gas and hydrogen to northern European countries, turning Italy into a key energy hub while allowing African energy exporters deeper access to European markets.
This has been followed by several major investments in Africa by Eni, a multinational energy company of which the Italian government is the largest single shareholder. In April last year, Eni’s CEO Claudio Descalzi said that the group would be investing around €24bn ($26.3bn) in Algeria, Libya and Egypt over a four-year period.
ENI is also working on oil and gas projects in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, and is also involved in a liquified natural gas (LNG) infrastructure project in Mozambique among other initiatives.
The Mattei Plan has been criticised in the past for being somewhat insubstantial, with Federico Donelli, professor of international relations at the University of Trieste, previously telling African Business that the initiative was “naïve and vague” in parts.
Meloni claims tangible results
Meloni claimed in Addis Ababa that since the previous summit in Rome “we have given substance to the Mattei Plan for Africa” and added that it was now “an operational and structural reality, which is generating tangible results for our peoples”.
Donelli says that “compared to its initial launch, the Mattei Plan has certainly gained more definitional clarity: priority countries have been identified; the sectoral pillars are clearer and coordination with European Union (EU) instruments has improved.”
He fears, however, that Italy’s stated ambition to secure major geopolitical influence in Africa is not yet matched by the scope of the Mattei Plan.
“Financial commitments remain limited relative to the expressed geopolitical ambition,” Donelli tells African Business.
While he notes that the Mattei Plan is now attempting to branch out into new sectors such as infrastructure, agriculture, education and healthcare, it continues for now to be heavily centred around the energy sector.
Crowded market
Italy’s diplomatic moves in Africa come a time when a range of European and global powers are battling for increased influence on the continent.
Donelli says that “Italy lacks the financial leverage of China, the entrenched political and security networks of France and the influence of the United States – consequently, its room for manoeuvre is structurally limited.”
While the Mattei Plan could yield economic benefits for both Italy and Africa, particularly in the field of energy, Donelli believes that “in practice Italy’s influence remains modest and highly dependent on continuity and delivery.”
“Without sustained financial commitments and long-term political follow-through, the disparity between ambition and actual leverage in Africa is likely to persist.”