Energy, gas and industrial development to make the country the energy center of the Mediterranean, a bridge between Africa and Europe. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has flown to Algiers for her first official visit and what is clear is that Italy will strengthen its alliance with Algeria on the energy front.
On the occasion of the mission to North Africa, the prime minister outlines the general lines of the operation that is part of the “Mattei Plan” announced in the inauguration speech at the end of October in the Chamber. “We have this ambitious project that we propose as a legislative horizon”, explains the Prime Minister who, given the difficult moment of energy supply, wants Italy to play a central role in distribution. And the two memoranda of understanding signed at the presidential palace in Algiers by ENI and its Algerian counterpart Sonatrach – one to increase supplies, not just gas, and the other to make this increase in production sustainable – are two more that fall within the framework general .
However, this framework will require time and investment to materialize, also due to the infrastructural ‘bottleneck’ in the gas pipelines in central Italy. A bottleneck that, explains Eni’s CEO, Claudio Descalzi, makes the hub project only “potential” at the moment. “With the bottleneck we have between Campania, Abruzzo and Molise, a maximum of 126 million cubic meters per day from the South can reach, and we are almost at the limit – highlights the CEO, present in the delegation that participated in the Algerian meeting away from home – The Snam has launched an expansion plan that must be approved by Arera, a consultation is in progress but I would say that it is one of the most necessary things we have because as all the gas comes from the South, if we have a bottle, the hub concept is a great potential that is not expressed”. In addition to the objective of making Italy the energy hub of the Mediterranean, adds Descalzi, “we are also thinking of a country that does not have to worry about restrictions or very high costs. The first point is to give Italy energy security at low costs, so Italy’s centrality and positioning comes by itself”.
Meloni works with those who have flown to Algiers for their first bilateral mission since being at Palazzo Chigi. “It is no coincidence – underlines the prime minister – that it demonstrates how much Algeria is a reliable partner and of absolute strategic importance for Italy”. Especially after replacing Russia as the main supplier of natural gas. The intention now is to strengthen the partnership to build “bridges between the northern and southern shores of the Mediterranean” and contribute to the stabilization of a region “highly strategic for Italy and Europe”. So much so that after the trip to Algeria another will soon follow, almost certainly in Libya. “We will make other trips to North African countries in the coming weeks”, confirms Meloni who, returning to the Mattei Plan, makes a point of describing it as “a project based on a non-predatory model of collaboration, on an equal basis with the countries of the south of the Mediterranean to transform the many crises we face, even on possible occasions. What we are doing today with Algeria is confirmation of an extraordinary bridge that Italy has built over the years and which we are sure will be useful for the whole of Europe, especially on the issue of energy supply”.
And it is precisely to Europe that the prime minister is addressing, arguing that it is also in her interest to support the path taken by Italy. “Not only for a question related to energy security, but because in recent years perhaps it has not been very present in Africa – he recalls – and we see the results of this absence because, deep down, politics is a game of gaps that are being filled ” . In short, for the Prime Minister there is also a geopolitical issue at stake: “I think it is in Europe’s interest to also contain the Russian and Chinese presence that in recent years has increased significantly with evident destabilizing elements. At the last EU Council, I mentioned the idea of our ‘Piano Mattei’, and I think it would be wrong to approach the African question only from the point of view of migratory flows”.
Source: IL Tempo
Emma Fitzgerald is an accomplished political journalist and author at The Nation View. With a background in political science and international relations, she has a deep understanding of the political landscape and the forces that shape it.
