Italian PM Meloni’s ‘Africa plan seeks to swap energy investment for migration curbs

The chair of the African Union Commission (AUC) has welcomed Italy’s plan to strengthen relations between Europe and Africa that also includes a proposal to swap Europe’s energy investment for African efforts to curb migration but says ‘we are not beggars’.
Italy’s far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni hosted a one-day Italy-Africa summit on Monday (29 January) that was attended by more than two dozen African leaders and European Union officials. Meloni used the summit to unveil Italy’s development plan for the continent, which the government hopes will stem migration flows. Speaking of migrants, 155,754 of whom arrived on Italian shores in 2023, more than half of them Africans, she said that “human traffickers will never be defeated, if the causes that push a person to abandon their home are not addressed upstream.” To that end, among other initiatives, Meloni’s plan — named after Enrico Mattei, founder of state-controlled oil and gas giant Eni — seeks to swap energy investments for African efforts to curb migration.
The AUC chairperson Moussa Faki welcomed the so-called ‘Mattei Plan’ aimed at helping African countries to prosper in return for curbing illegal immigration but said that “we are not beggars”. “We cannot be satisfied with mere promises that can’t be kept,” According to Faki, a “paradigm shift” was required to usher in “a new model of partnership” and pave the way “towards a more just and coherent world”. The far-right Italian prime minister has long campaigned for people migrating from Africa “to be helped at home”. Fighting human trafficking would be central to the plan, Meloni said, adding that people had the right “not to be forced to migrate … for a better life which is difficult to find in Europe”. As part of this effort, Meloni pledged an initial funding of more than €5.5 billion for the project that would be earmarked for investments in a variety of sectors, including energy, education, health and infrastructure.