Much form, little substance, little solidarity.The Mattei Plan wants to rewrite cooperation with Africa in the name of (our) economic, energy and border security

 

That Giorgia Meloni would arrive at COP28 in Dubai speaking of the Mattei Plan it was quite obvious.“Energy is one of the pillars of the Mattei Plan for Africa, the cooperation and development plan on which Italy is working with great determination to build mutually beneficial partnerships and support the energy security of African and Mediterranean countries”, he said the Prime Minister on 2 December at the plenary session.Less obvious was the reference to the Mattei Plan at the event on 1 December, dedicated to the need to transform food systems in the face of climate change, in which Meloni he specified that “a very substantial part of our Mattei Plan for Africa is destined for the agricultural sector”.How transversal is this Mattei Plan?And what does it actually involve?To understand this you need to take a step back.

A year after the first announcement made in Montecitorio, the Meloni government began to give shape to the "Mattei Plan", outlining its governance with legislative decree n°161 of 15 November, published in the Official Journal.It was the Prime Minister herself, Giorgia Meloni, in the request for confidence in the Chamber of Deputies for the constitution of the government, on 25 October 2022, to speak for the first time of a "Mattei Plan", defining it “a virtuous model of collaboration and growth between the European Union and African nations”, with the aim of "recovering, after years in which we preferred to retreat, our strategic role in the Mediterranean".Despite the time that has passed and the broad debate that has arisen, the government has chosen to take refuge in usual formula of the decree law, outlining "urgent provisions for the Mattei Plan for development in states on the African continent".So urgent, one might think, that there hasn't even been time to outline with which African states begin what has been heralded as a new form of cooperation.

In the famous joke against the prime minister by the Russian comedians Vovan and Lexus, who passed themselves off as the president of the African Union Commission, a knowledge emerged not really thorough of perhaps the most complex continent in the world:not mentioning even one of the 54 African states, defining them summarily as if they were an indistinct whole, is an act that denotes a less than encouraging approximation.And that leaves them intact criticisms of neocolonialism aimed at the government, despite the many reassurances provided in recent months by both the Foreign Minister, Antonio Tajani, and the Prime Minister herself.If the first he promised that "Italy will always look at the African continent with a non-European vision", Meloni he reiterated that the aim is to build "a model of cooperation on an equal basis to transform the many crises into possible opportunities".After many announcements, however, a first partial document has finally arrived.But what does it specifically involve?

Mattei Plan:the first pieces of a complicated puzzle

As already mentioned, the law decree on the Mattei Plan is made up of seven articles.In the first, this Plan is described in a little more detail for the first time, so far full of promises but poor in substance.In any case, confirming the desire of the Meloni government to give centrality to relations with Africa, as had already been understood through the reference to Enrico Mattei, one of the most famous and appreciated Italians on the continent.The Plan is a "strategic programmatic document" which "identifies areas of intervention and priorities for action" on a long list of sectors, has a duration of four years, therefore coinciding with the government's legislature, and can be updated even before the deadline.

Article 2 introduces the inevitable "control room" which, in addition to institutional figures, also provides for the appointment of "representatives" of publicly-owned companies, of the university and research system, of civil society and third parties. sector, representatives of public or private bodies, experts in the subjects covered, identified by decree of the President of the Council of Ministers, adopted within sixty days from the date of entry into force of this decree".In the art.3 defines the rather summary tasks of the control room, while article 4 establishes, starting from 1 December 2023, a "mission structure" which will report to the Presidency of the Council:an announced choice, which confirms the desire for centralization by Giorgia Meloni.The mission structure will have a coordinator, to be identified among "those belonging to the diplomatic career", and is structured in the usual bureaucratic difficulty ("two offices of general management level, including that of the coordinator, and two offices of non-general management level") .

Article 5 provides that by 30 June of each year the government will send Parliament a report on the state of implementation of the Plan, to evaluate the effectiveness of the interventions with respect to the objectives pursued.The financial provision, provided for in article 6, amounts to just under 3 million euros starting from 2024, a figure with which the mission structure is probably intended to pay compensation and travel.Finally, article 7 indicates that the decree law comes into force from 16 November and will be presented to the Chambers for conversion into law.

At first reading it is clear that the unanswered questions remain more numerous than the answers provided.For example:with what appropriations will the entire Mattei Plan be financed?During a visit to Mozambique in mid-October, Meloni he confirmed the desire to use the Italian Climate Fund, established with the 2022 Budget Law to follow up on the decision voted at COP26 in Glasgow to mobilize 100 billion euros to address the consequences of global warming in developing countries.Of the total 4.2 billion, he said the Prime Minister, "70% of our Climate Fund will be dedicated to Africa, around 3 billion euros, an important investment with which we would like to push the entire EU towards a new approach".

A decision that he saw the opposition of numerous Italian and international NGOs, who fear that instead of the expected mitigation and adaptation operations, the Fund would finance new hydrocarbon extractions, given ENI's very strong interests throughout the continent (we will return to this shortly).Last July 13, the Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security announced made known the birth of the Steering Committee on the Italian Climate Fund.We are now waiting for the Fund's management body, namely Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, to prepare the industrial plan for investments.But, as we have seen, the decree law makes no mention of all this, limiting itself to establishing the control room and the mission structure.In short:the Mattei Plan still exists everything to write.A feeling that had already emerged in a survey widespread in the first days of November and created by the Ipsos institute for the NGO Amref Italia.The survey was conducted between 5 and 9 October 2023 and involved 800 people, representative of the Italian population.

In the first part of the survey - entitled "The idea of ​​Africa for Italians and the political agenda" - it is revealed that only 12% of those interviewed have heard of the Mattei Plan and remember the content, even if a good 46% only remember the name from hearsay.Looking at the African continent, according to Italians, economic aid alone is not enough, Africa is a continent with many resources that could be exploited better (86%).The most important aid should focus first and foremost on the objective of guaranteeing access to healthcare (36%);to build school infrastructure and quality education (33%);to improve the agricultural sector (26%) and to combat malnutrition (21%).At 16% - fifth place - the management of migratory flows.

Not exactly the priorities of the Meloni government.

The downsizing of cooperation

Exactly one year passed from the announcement of the Mattei Plan to its first draft.A period of time in which the criticisms they had outnumbered the appreciations.With the text available the proportion does not appear to have changed.If it was easy it involves the support of newspapers right-wing, the less obvious it was approval by specialized magazines such as Africa and Business.At the same time, the obvious doubts expressed by publications such as Il Sole 24 ore, That he spoke of “vague contents” (practical criticism the same to that of The Sheet) And The Corriere della Sera, That hosted the speech by Silvia Stilli, spokesperson for AOI, the Association of Italian Organizations of International Cooperation and Solidarity, which rarely finds space in the pages of the most well-known Italian newspaper.

In his speech Stilli claims that "whatever the legislative path chosen, the government's aim is to use the Partnership and Cooperation Plan with Africa, which is enormously needed, to empty its function and contents and then cancel the law 125/2014”, i.e. the law that regulates the ordinary international cooperation activity which entrusts the direction and ownership of planning and implementation to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

However, no discontent emerged from the head of the ministry, Antonio Tajani, regarding the management of the Mattei Plan, at least at an official level.Indeed, in response to the deputy of the Democratic Party Giuseppe Provenzano, who in a recent question time session had described him as crushed by the positions of the Prime Minister, Tajani he reassured:“I won't let myself be placed under police administration”. Explaining then in more detail the genesis, characteristics and prospects of the Mattei Plan:

There are numerous areas of cooperation:agro-industry, energy transition, fight against climate change, infrastructure, physical and digital, professional training, cultural, scientific and academic cooperation.We intend to systematize the activities that Italy carries out, orienting them towards shared priorities and mobilizing new resources, not only public ones.We want to increase the joint ventures of which the continent is rich.Growth is the most effective tool to promote the stabilization of crisis areas, attack the causes of migration and counter the spread of radicalism.Cooperation and development also represents an important piece.Africa is the primary beneficiary of our activities.On the continent we have 400 donation initiatives and more than 40 credit projects for a total of around 2 billion euros.But Italy cannot do it alone.Ever since I was vice president of the Commission in Brussels I insisted on the need for a European Marshall plan for Africa and (I do, editor's note) even today that it is even more necessary.We need to involve international organizations and financial institutions as we did for the Rome Conference on Development and Migration.

A bit of everything, one might say.Meanwhile, the long-awaited Italy-Africa conference, scheduled for November, took place after the Middle Eastern crisis postponed at an unspecified beginning of 2024.For the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, "this will also allow better coordination with other events on the international agenda and in particular the meetings of the African Union and the Italian Presidency of the G7, during which Africa will have a central role".Second Mario Giro, former deputy foreign minister and leader of the Community of Sant'Egidio, with the Mattei Plan "Italy would enter entrepreneurial sectors [African, ed] by buying parts of property or starting joint ventures.”While in the magazine Life, point of reference for the third sector, Giampaolo Silvestri, general secretary of the AVSI Foundation, remember that “cooperation with Africa has been going on for many years.So the Mattei Plan must have the ability to do scaling up, to systematize positive experiences and make both a synthesis and replication of these experiences".

So far, however, there is no trace of this desire for dialogue with existing laws and bodies:both the control room and the mission structure, in fact, come “torn” at the Farnesina, confirming Giorgia Meloni's tendency to want to do it herself, without trusting her government allies. As he writes Antonio Fraschilla on Republic, “in one year the Prime Minister has created five mission structures that cost around 18 million euros and provide external workers and experts for 3 million euros per year, taking away responsibilities from various ministries to centralize them, in many cases, in Palazzo Chigi”.

What is certain is that, in this first partial piece of the Mattei Plan, the world of cooperation is reduced, especially in light of the fact that in the first draft of the 2023 Budget Law it was at least expected a paragraph which provided for 200 million per year for development cooperation interventions, with priority in the agricultural and energy fields, a paragraph which later disappeared in the subsequent version of the Budget Law.

Above all, what emerges is the Government's desire to interpret the renewed relations with Africa under the banner of one of the most well-known slogans of the Italian right, "let's help them at home".Even to have African prisoners serve their sentences in their countries of origin, such as stated in August, on a visit to the Livorno prison, by the undersecretary of Justice Andrea Delmastro.

An idea of ​​cooperation that seems linked more to economic interests than to solidarity between peoples.On the occasion of the "Promossi 2023" tender, created by the Italian Government and the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation which will be published next December, Deputy Minister Edmondo Cirielli he declared:

President Meloni launched a great Mattei' Plan aimed at Africa not because we want to abandon other countries in the global South, but it is clear that Italy has always been the country most connected to Africa due to its geographical position.We have a very clear responsibility towards the area we face, not only because of the obligations and commitments undertaken at an international level but also because this makes economic sense that can help both of us."

ENI's safety and energy, first of all

The key word of the law decree on the Mattei Plan is "safety".In the introduction of the text, the use of this legislative instrument is justified by stating "the need and urgency of defining an overall plan for the development of collaboration between Italy and the states of the African continent, which fits into the broader Italian strategy of protection and promotion of national security in all its dimensions, including economic, energy, climate, food and the prevention and fight against irregular migratory flows".

The portal Formiche.net remember that Copasir, the parliamentary committee for the security of the Republic, has also been dealing with Africa in recent months.An activity which, following a series of hearings, will lead to the beginning of 2024 a relationship, in what is defined as a "synergy" between parliamentary and governmental activities:

The attention to Africa by Copasir, chaired today by the former Defense Minister Lorenzo Guerini (Democratic Party), reflects that of the government, determined to involve the African Union in next year's G7 which it will preside over and which will have a particular attention to the Global South.Demographic development has something to do with it:according to the World Bank, by 2075 Africa will dominate the global working age population, covering a third of the total.Raw materials that are fundamental to the green-tech transition and therefore to the economic one are involved.There are security issues involved:immigration but also risks linked to terrorist and jihadist groups.It has to do with the weight that the continent will have at a multilateral level, with its 54 member countries of the United Nations.And, connected to all these challenges and opportunities, there is the comparison between models that is part of the broader competition between superpowers, the United States and China.

Even from a very armored Parliament, doubts and perplexities filter through.The 3rd Permanent Commission (Foreign Affairs and Defense) of the Senate, chaired by Stefania Craxi, is carrying out a series of informal hearings on the Mattei Plan and in the meeting of November 29th gave voice to the concerns of the wide world of cooperation and non-governmental organizations.Craxi herself first recalls that on the legislative decree "we cannot present amendments" and then at an open microphone, between one session and another, she lets slip that "some things they said are interesting".

Apart from the sharing of the Mattei Plan by all the ministries, on the general structure of the legislative decree, while awaiting a real articulated program on the Mattei Plan, one of the greatest fears is that of an overlap of competences and areas with the realities that already exist and have been operating for some time in Africa, as has happened several times in the past.

A case above all is that of the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation:in the summary published on its website the Agency recalls that "it can boast an annual budget of just under one billion euros and designs, finances and manages hundreds of projects all over the world and in many sectors.Africa is a complex and diversified continent, with different social and development trajectories, but the Agency knows it well because of its 18 offices, nine are in Africa and in the last five years, 1,400 projects have been approved on the continent for a value around one billion euros".

Returning specifically to the Mattei Plan, in an interesting analysis Simone Ogno, campaigner of the NGO ReCommon, observe That:

The political imprint of the government is clear from the beginning, despite the much vaunted cooperation on an equal basis:the matrix is ​​security, and every aspect of the Plan will be understood from this perspective.A message also reiterated by the absence of any formal reference to the participation of African countries, public institutions or private bodies - especially those belonging to civil society - in the governance of the Plan.

In addition to the government team, the Italian public finance institutions will also be part of the control room, starting with SACE:the export credit agency thanks to which Italy is the first European financier of fossil projects abroad, the sixth globally (...) The civil monitoring of this process is more decisive than ever, in light of potential conflicts of interest.A problem that also arises with the mission structure of the Plan, which may include "staff of public companies controlled or participated by the central administrations of the State on the basis of a relationship regulated by agreements". Perhaps conventions like the Farnesina and ENI ones, which allows the oil giant to station members of its staff at the ministry for an unlimited period of time?

Those of ReCommon are not the only doubts that emerge from the associative world.Even the failure of the WWF is clear:

In this confusing blank delegation, we need to start reading between the lines.No priority role is assigned to renewables, which seem decidedly secondary to the exploitation, albeit defined as "sustainable", of natural resources, or, implicitly, fossil fuels.Renewables, on the contrary, should be the backbone of a decarbonised energy system, at the basis of sustainable development even in African countries themselves.Likewise, the intent to transform Italy into a gas hub, represented several times by this government, even in official documents such as the PNIEC, is poorly hidden by the decree on the Mattei Plan.The point is not directly addressed, nor ever mentioned, but the impression is that it is left to the bureaucratic structure, defined ad hoc, to potentially let any type of project pass under the radar.Only in the next few months will it really be known which areas of intervention the Mattei Plan will touch on, which states on the African continent will actually be involved, with what methods, purposes and projects.Today, we have an expensive empty box, which, however, already causes a lot of concern.

Since the Mattei Plan refers to the founder of ENI, it is useful to look back interests of the Italian energy company in Africa.Also because Claudio Descalzi, CEO of ENI since 2014, began his climb to the top of the company precisely from here:first project manager for the development of activities in the North Sea, Libya, Nigeria and Congo, and subsequently director of the geographical area Italy, Africa and the Middle East.In an interview at the beginning of the year with Financial Times, Descalzi he had been direct, as is his style:“We don't have energy, they do.”

Since Enrico Mattei chose to focus on Africa from an energy point of view, 70 years ago, the company's presence has expanded considerably.

A process further accelerated after the war in Ukraine, with ENI and Italy which they bet mainly on Africa and the Middle East to replace Russian gas.In this context, the Mattei Plan appears to be yet another support placed by the Government on the energy company represented by the six-legged dog.So it is not surprising that on November 16th, simultaneously with the launch of the law decree on the Mattei Plan, ENI and the Luiss university they inaugurated the conference of the International Network on African Energy Transition (INAET):

The conference sees the participation of universities, research centers and high-level institutions from Algeria, Congo, Ivory Coast, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda and South Africa.The objective is to create synergies with universities and institutions, both European and international, participating in the event.These include the European University Institute, the International Monetary Fund, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), the Atlantic Council, the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs , Cassa Depositi e Prestiti and other relevant entities.Combining the leading academic experience of Luiss University with Eni's know-how in the energy sector and the company's consolidated presence in Africa, the event plans to address five main priorities:climate change mitigation and adaptation measures;Africa's development paths and necessary resources;young generations' perspectives on the energy transition;African priorities in the energy transition;international actors and the role of the private sector in the African energy transition.

While waiting for the Meloni government to write the Mattei Plan, there are those who are already putting it into practice.

Preview image:The Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, upon her arrival in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa (Photo:Palazzo Chigi) via today.it