Mattei Plan: over 600 million for the first projects

Over€600 million for the first projects. This is the number that emerges from the first annual report on the state of implementation of the Mattei Plan, sent by the government to parliament in recent days. The 35 pages, which will be examined by the Foreign Affairs Committee of Montecitorio on Wednesday, indicate the new financial instruments set up at the African Development Bank and those launched by Cdp and Simest. And there are 22 tabs with as many projects. Among the financially heaviest ones is phase 2 of the development of the 'Lobito Corridor', the new railway connection between Angola and the copper mining region in Zambia, to be realised together with, among others, the USA and the EU: the Italian contribution can reach up to 300 million euro, as announced in recent months by Giorgia Meloni.

From the Italian Climate Fund - the main reservoir in support of the cooperation strategy with Africa launched by the government - 71 million is earmarked for a project in Kenya to expand the production of vegetable oil for advanced biofuels, whose executor is Eni Kenya in partnership with the local Ministry of Agriculture. Resources which, the sheet explains, amplify a 128 million loan from the International Finance Corporation (World Bank), for a total package of around 200 million.

Report shines a spotlight on this project and the effects on local farmers. 'According to reports by some NGOs and by Report,' says Angelo Bonelli, '75 million euro has already been spent on biofuel crops and the farmers have received nothing because the castor-oil plantation was a failure and the land is now contaminated (by the castor-oil plant itself)'. Avs urges 'an investigation by the UN' and speaks of a 'form of neo-colonialism'.

In addition to the nine nations with which pilot projects are underway, others will be added in 2025, and 'interlocutions' have been initiated with Ghana and Angola. The report emphasises the "medium-term" objective of laying "the foundations for the establishment of a structured collaboration with the new European Commission, extending from the individual initiatives of the Mattei Plan to the wide-ranging sharing of its general lines and aims".

Meanwhile, synergy with the EU's Global Gateway was initiated. Among the initiatives, also a plan to support primary education in the Ivory Coast, a hospitality school in Hurghada, Egypt, a green economy project in Ethiopia and an agrifood pole in Mozambique: initiatives that in the executive's plans will slow down the flows from Africa, in a strategy to contrast illegal migrations also based on the centres in Albania. And this is why the British newspaper Sunday Times speaks of 'Melon-style migrant agreements' revealing the Labour government's plans with Kurdistan and Vietnam. "The Meloni government's policies to combat illegal immigration," is the FdI comment, "are bearing fruit and are setting the standard throughout Europe.