Translated by Elena Ciullo
Next 20th June 2025, in Rome, the international meeting entitled “The Mattei Plan for Africa and the Global Gateway: A common effort with the African Continent” will take place. The meeting, co-chaired by the Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and the president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, is a crucial moment for the future of the Mattei Plan. It is indeed a key opportunity to boost a project that aims at deeply rethinking relations among Europe, Italy and the African continent.
The Mattei Plan is an international cooperation strategy promoted by the government, aiming at enhancing political, economic and cultural bonds with African countries. At the basis of the initiatives there is the will to build an authentically equal partnership, that promotes sustainable development, stability and local opportunities, acting in the same time on the root causes of forced migration. As it can be read in official documents, Italy wants to “implement a paradigm shift when it come to the relations with the African continent, developing a partnership based on equality, that rejects both the paternalistic and charity approach and the predatory one and that is able to provide advantages and opportunities for everybody”.
Considering the vastness and the complexity of the African continent, the Mattei plan provides for an initial phase of targeted intervention in nine countries: Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, Kenya, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Republic of Congo and Ivory Coast. Subsequently, the initiative will gradually include all African countries.
Each project, to be approved and implemented, must meet five fundamental criteria: efficacy, integration and flexibility, added value, growth and sustainability potential and replicability. The aim is not only guaranteeing measurable results in the short term, but also promoting development models that can be expanded and adjusted to other contexts, making a positive and lasting impact on local communities.
The plan will be financed through a combination of public and private resources. In particular, Italy has provided for the use of the Italian Fund for Climate, to which other private investments will be added, and hopefully, European funds too. In this context, the connection with the European program Global Gateway, promoted by the European Commision in December 2021, which aims at attracting investments to enhance infrastructure connections between the EU and the partner countries, whit particular attention to sustainability, digitalization and economic resilience.
In January 2024 a specific Fund for the Mattei Plan has been established, with an initial amount of 5.5 billion euros as credits and guarantees. However, the details on tangible projects to be financed are still being defined, and the meeting on 20 June could indeed be an operational turning point, both from a political and financial point of view.
Italy, through this plan, wants to be a bridge between Europe and Africa, playing an active role in defining a new cooperation agenda. The synergy with the European Commission is deemed fundamental to enhance the effectiveness of the Mattei Plan, integrating it with the ongoing European strategies. In this context, the meeting in Rome is an important symbolic and operational step: the idea is to join forces, avoid copies and present to Africa a cohesive and credible front, able to offer partnerships, investments and respect.
The meeting on 20 June is a fundamental negotiation and plan implementation opportunity. However, what remains to be seen is whether this view will turn into tangible actions, also shared and appreciated by African partners. The challenge will consist indeed in preventing the plan to be perceived as a top-down initiative, respecting the principles of listening, co-creation and mutual advantage, that are the core of the plan.