(Finance) –
Twenty-five heads of state and government, dozens of ministerial delegations, but also heads of the European institutions, the rotating presidency of the African Union and the deputy secretary of the United Nations: they arrived at Palazzo Madama, where the conference began, the summit participants Italy-Africa, a bridge for common growth, welcomed by the Foreign Minister, Antonio Tajani at the entrance to the Senate headquarters and inside by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
“I welcome you to the legislative chamber of the Senate, a place of representation, discussion, dialogue, democracy and the history of our nation. An ancient and ever new history, which today marks with your participation the beginning of a new chapter in the relations not only of Italy, but of the whole of Europe towards the African continent”, said the President of the Senate Ignazio The Russian, in his greeting address in the Senate.
“The Mattei Plan can count on an initial allocation of over 5.5 billion euros in credits, gift operations and guarantees, of which approximately 3 billion come from the Italian Climate Fund and approximately 2.5 billion from development cooperation resources”, underlined the president of I recommend Meloni taking the speech in the Senate. “Of course – admitted Meloni – it’s not enough, which is why we want to involve international institutions and other donor states”.
“We are aware of how interconnected the destiny of our continents is and that it is possible to imagine and write a new page in our relations, a cooperation as equals, far from any predatory temptation and charitable approach”, added Meloni who spoke of “such an ambitious plan will not work without the involvement of the entire country system as a whole, starting from development cooperation and the private sector which is essential to involve in our strategy”. Using energy as a key to development means, he explained, “helping the African nations interested in reducing the energy necessary for their own needs and exporting the excess part to Europe”, which means “putting together two needs: the African one of develop this production and generate wealth, the European one to secure new energy supply routes”.
Mattei Plan is a concrete plan of strategic interventions, concentrated on a few medium-long term priorities, education and training, health and agriculture, water and energy. We have identified some African nations in the sub-Saharan and North African quadrant” which will then be expanded “following an incremental logic”. Thus Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni opened the proceedings of the Italy-Africa summit in the Senate. The Mattei Plan continued, ” it was not dropped from above as often happened in the past”, but it is a “shared programmatic platform: sharing is one of the key principles
The Mattei Plan “is not fluff” but “an avant-garde based on clear objectives. Very strong political and economic efforts will follow”. The Minister of Defense said this in an interview with the Press Guido Crosetto. “Meloni’s victory was to make everyone understand Western states that this is Africa’s century”, explained the minister when questioned a few hours after the Italy-Africa Conference.