Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has been shifting the focus of her immigration policy from a rhetoric centered around clamping down on irregular boat arrivals to one of seeking fresh ways to empower the African countries they tend to hail from.

At a Monday summit in Rome, the far-right Italian leader pledged to reshape her country’s relations with Africa, saying the relationship had been of a somewhat predatory nature to date.

She introduced a plan inspired by Enrico Mattei, the founder of Italy’s state-owned energy giant, Eni.

Meloni’s so-called Mattei Plan sees Italy as an economic, security and diplomatic bridge between Africa and Europe, with a vision of meeting much of Europe’s energy needs by buying from Africa and at the same time investing funds to prevent migration across the Mediterranean Sea.

“The objective is to present to African countries our vision of African development. This means a new, non-predatory, non-patronizing approach … a peer-to-peer approach to grow together,” Meloni said in an interview with Italy’s national broadcaster, RAI.

In terms of migration management, the Italian government says the ambitious Mattei Plan intends to tackle push factors and persuade common countries of origin to sign readmittance deals for migrants who fail to obtain legal status in Italy in exchange for major development initiatives which, however, also primarily benefit Europe.

In that regard, its remains unclear how a plan that is designed to benefit Italy and Europe on multiple levels while only supporting Africa with the lone dimension of ensuring sustainable development and subsequent job creation is intended to be, as Meloni put it, “non-predatory, non-patronizing.”

Italy’s opposition lawmakers have already referred to Meloni’s plan as “neocolonial”, calling it an “empty box” designed to exploit Africa’s natural resources once more.

Shifting energy focus away from Russia
The particular focuses of the development investments will be on the energy, infrastructure, agriculture, water, health and education sectors, Meloni’s office said.

Of those, the main focus is on the transfer of energy from Africa to Italy.

In theory, the Mattei Plan could amount to a much-welcome idea in this context in particular, as European countries are scrambling to slash their dependence on Russian gas after Moscow’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

But the reality is more complicated, as critics of the plan say it focuses too much on fossil fuel reliance in an age when the issue of energy transformation to green and renewable energy sources is the main target of most European countries.

Meloni has also been reminded by dissenting voices that with over 40% of Africans having no access to energy at all, discussing a transfer of energy sources from Africa to Europe might also make her appear tone-deaf.

‘A bridge for common growth’

Representatives from over 25 countries, including the presidents of Tunisia, Senegal, Eritrea, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritania, Mozambique and Zimbabwe all attended the summit.

Other countries, like Algeria, Chad, Egypt and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) were represented by senior ministers.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and African Union Commission chair Moussa Faki Mahamat were also present at the opening of the event, which was held at the Italian Senate, as were representatives of the United Nations and the World Bank.

The plan got a lukewarm reception, with AU Chairman Mahamat telling the summit that African countries would have liked to have been consulted before Italy rolled out its plan.

“We need to pass from words to deeds,” Faki told the summit. “We cannot be happy with promises that are never maintained.”

Big promises, empty coffers
And whether any of those promises are sustainable in the long term also remains doubtful: Despite so many stakeholders attending the event, many are wondering how the far-right leader will manage to fund this transformation program.

Experts have warned that Italy may struggle to get support from the European Union, which unveiled its own Africa package worth €150 billion in 2022.

Meanwhile, Meloni’s own government had to cut funds for foreign aid last year, allocating less than €3 million annually to the elusive Mattei plan until 2026.

Meloni said that even with such little funding, the plan would soon be launched with a series of pilot schemes in northern parts of Africa with the stated goal of extending them across the continent.

Soft power against migration
The meeting in Rome comes as Italy holds the presidency of the G7 group of nations this year.

Meloni’s government has vowed to make African development a central theme during its presidency.

Meloni hopes that introducing such policies on the continent might help curb the widespread level of discontent among young people in Africa — one of the root causes of migration –in turn dissuading young people from undertaking dangerous journeys across the Mediterranean.

The leader of the Brothers of Italy party and her main coalition partner, the far-right League Party under the leadership of Matteo Salvini, have both vowed to stop migrant boats coming to Italian shores from North Africa.

However, the rate of landings in Italy has in fact risen despite such pledges, from some 105,000 in 2022 to almost 158,000 in 2023.