The Italian prime minister brought together 22 African leaders in Rome to discuss a cooperation plan.
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Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni opened a summit of African heads of state and government on Monday intended to highlight Italy's major development plan for the continent, with which the government aims to reduce migration flows, diversify energy sources and develop new sources of energy a new relationship between Europe and Africa.
Meloni outlined a series of pilot projects in individual countries that she said would create jobs and conditions for Africa's development an important energy exporter to Europeto help him stop being dependent on Russian energy.
Right “not to emigrate”
“We want to release African energy to protect younger generations a right that has so far been denied” said Meloni in the opening speech of the summit. “Because here in Europe we talk a lot about the right to emigrate, but we rarely talk about guaranteeing the right not to be forced to emigrate.”
Two dozen African heads of state and government, senior officials from the European Union and the United Nations and representatives of international credit institutions were in Rome for the summit, the first major event of the Italian presidency G7.
Italy, which has been the starting point of the migration debate in Europe for decades, promotes its development plan as a way to get there Create economic and security conditions This ensures that they create jobs in Africa and deter young people from undertaking dangerous migrations across the Mediterranean.
“Mattei Plan”
Meloni, Italy's first far-right leader since the end of World War II, played Stopping migration is a priority of your government.
But in his first year in power, the number of people arriving on Italian shores increased enormously: last year there were around 160,000.
The government's plan, named after Enrico Mattei, the founder of state-owned oil and gas giant Eni, aims to expand cooperation with Africa beyond the energy sector, but in a non-predatory way. The plan includes pilot projects in areas such as education, healthcare, water, sanitation, agriculture and infrastructure.