From migrants to energy via infrastructure and internet traffic. These are some of the memorandums of understanding between Italy and Libya on the table of the intergovernmental summit held yesterday in Rome. The meeting between Giorgia Meloni and the Prime Minister of the Government of National Unity (GUN), Abulhamid Dabaiba, on an official two-day mission in our country, took place six months after the first trip to Libya by the Italian Prime Minister. The objective is to try to establish economic relations also to facilitate the control of immigration, but above all the stabilization of the North African country, which, for Meloni, is Italy’s priority. From Palazzo Chigi they made known that “the two leaders also discussed the importance of calling the presidential and parliamentary elections in Libya as soon as possible, also with the mediation of the United Nations and the UN representative Bathily. In this regard, Italy will continue to work to ensure greater unity of purpose by the international community to ensure the success of the United Nations mediation.”
On the topic of migration, Meloni expressed concern about the summer season which could lead to an increase in arrivals on our coasts. For the prime minister, in fact, “it is essential to intensify efforts in the fight against trafficking in human beings”. Italy, therefore, “remains determined to confirm its constant commitment to support the Libyan authorities, in the management of migratory flows and in assisting local communities through the Migration Fund projects”. With that in mind, Minister Piantedosi and his Libyan counterpart signed a Declaration of Intent on strengthening cooperation in security matters. In fact, the flow of migrants arriving in Libya to leave for Italy does not stop. In recent days, General Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan National Army has expelled around 4,000 Egyptians through land border crossings. The migrants would have been found during raids against human traffickers.
And while Meloni met with the Libyan delegation, some NGOs were heard before the Foreign Affairs and Defense committees of the Chamber. Among them, the Emergency that asked the Parliament and the Government to “revoke the Italy-Libya memorandum, not to extend and expand the international military missions that support the activity of the so-called Libyan coastguard and make us accomplices of crimes against humanity”. Some ministers from his government arrived with Dabaiba, as well as the heads of the National Oil Corporation (NOC), Libya’s state oil agency, and the Libyan Post Telecommunications & Information Technology Company (Lptic), a postal and telecommunications company. Deputy Prime Ministers Tajani and Salvini, Ministers Piantedosi and Urso and the managing director of Eni, Claudio Descalzi, were present for Italy. The meeting lasted about two hours during which the memos were reviewed. Among them, an agreement was signed between Termomeccanica Ecologia and Hup, a Libyan entity for urban development, for the resumption and conclusion of the purification works for wastewater in Tripoli and Misurata, and the signature between Telecom Sparkle and the Post Office and telecommunications in Libya with a view to building an undersea data cable. But the most substantial part of the memoranda concerns the agreement between ENI and NOC in the oil and natural gas sectors “to carry out joint investments in offshore areas, in the Mediterranean basin, and onshore, in the Ghadames basin”, said the Libya’s national unity government. During the meeting, the air embargo against Libyan civil aviation in Italy was also discussed, which Tripoli intends to lift in the short term.
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.
