The second meeting of the Control Room of the Mattei Plan, the investment and development program planned and strongly supported by the Italian government and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, was held yesterday at Palazzo Chigi. The meeting served to “take stock – as explained in the final press release – on the missions of the members of the Mission Structure, Development Cooperation and the Italian System carried out in East Africa and on the future missions scheduled in the coming weeks”.
The agreements with Tunisia
“During the meeting, the recent missions of the Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to Egypt (17 March) and Tunisia (17 April) were recalled, which allowed the signing of important agreements in some of the sectors of intervention identified by the Plan: agriculture , water, training”. In fact, in recent weeks the dialogue between the executive led by Giorgia Meloni and the African nations, especially those in the Mediterranean area, seems to have intensified, in that constant diplomatic liaison work which sees Italy as the protagonist in reaching a resolution to the age-old migration problem. In recent days, in fact, Giorgia Meloni was welcomed in Tunis by Prime Minister Kais Saied: for the occasion, the two governments stipulated collaboration agreements on various issues. In particular in terms of university and economic collaboration, with support plans for the exploitation of clean energy and for small and medium-sized enterprises. On the subject of universities, during the meeting, it was pointed out that Italy is at the forefront in terms of scientific collaboration: there are almost a thousand university agreements stipulated between our nation, Europe and Africa in the last 30 years , while 200 cooperation projects have been drawn up in the last five years. Relations with Tunisia were then also strengthened by the meeting, which took place a few days ago, between the Minister of Defense Guido Crosetto and his Tunisian counterpart: “The collaboration between our countries – the Italian reiterated – linked by solid friendshipis a priority and is part of the work that Italy is carrying out with the Mattei Plan, to build a equal and respectful cooperation”.
International support
In recent days, however, the meeting was between the Italian and Egyptian governments: after Giorgia Meloni’s visit last March, it was the turn of the Minister of Business and Made in Italy Adolfo Urso. From Cairo, on this occasion, “the full understanding with the Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, the excellent relations between the two countries at a political, economic and cultural level, the solidity of the strong Egyptian-European partnership”. In particular, the representatives of the Egyptian government underlined “the exceptional Italian-Egyptian relationship, which will be catalyst for cooperation and participation in the Mattei Plan dedicated to Africa”. The work of the Mattei Plan is therefore obtaining the support of all the actors involved. Requests also come from Rosangela Mattei, granddaughter of Enrico, the founder of Eni to whom the Plan is dedicated due to his particular concertation in the energy sector, wanting to make Italy the energy hub of the Mediterranean, the connecting land between the African and European containing. “I recommend this Mattei Plan – he said to Deputy Prime Minister Tajani, who was chairing the session – Uncle Enrico expects it, he says that and now”.
The second meeting of the Control Room yesterday served in a special way to “examine a consolidated version of the summary document of the Mattei Plan, in light of the observations formulated by the members of the Control Room, in view of the finalization of the document, which will be transmitted to Parliament for the formulation of the opinion of the competent parliamentary commissions”. An obligatory step, therefore, to allow the Meloni Government to continue its work on a fundamental strategy for the future of Italy, Africa, Europe.
