The Meloni Tour continues and after the meeting in Algeri, on the 28th of January, she made a stop in Libya, a country with which Italy has always had special ties.
At the airport, waiting for the Prime Minister, there were also a diplomatic delegation and the Italian Foreign Minister, Antonio Tajani, who was already there.
The presence in Libya of the two Italian ministers, Foreign and Interiors ones, underlines the importance and delicacy of the Libyan visit, whose main issues are the energy crisis and the migrant crisis. Two issues that have top priority on the current international political agenda, and therefore require a joint effort of the various institutional actors involved.
Meloni engagement against irregular immigration
The migration crisis has invovled the Mediterranean area since 2015, and in the same year the EU launched an EU Emergency Trust Fund for Africa, and in November 2017 it was established a Joint Task Force on Migration, together with the African Union and the United Nations, which aims to unite efforts and enhance cooperation to respond to migration challenges in Africa, particularly in Libya.
Libya is the North African state that is of central importance in the Mediterranean migration route, being the preferred connection point for all those who wish to reach, more or less legally, the European continent.
However, the EU’s action seems to have been directed more toward humanitarian support and aid, neglecting, in part, the need to create a plan that can lead to the stability and recovery of the entire continent, which is rich in natural resources, too long under- or badly exploited.
The commitment that, on the other hand, the Italian government wants to pursue is quite different, and according to what said by Premier Meloni: “Italy can and wants to play an important role in helping African countries grow and become richer, in the name of a cooperation that does not want to be predatory, but that wants to leave something in the nations.”
This means, therefore, offering concrete help to those countries that really need it and that, if supported, can become aid partners themselves. But it also an action that supports the defense of national and European borders, collaborating in agreement with the authorities of North Africa in the management of migratory flows and in the fight against illegal immigration, stopping the activity of all those who favor it or benefit from it in some way.
The illegal immigration, indeed, is one of the main themes that emerged during the Italian-Libyan discussion. In this occasion, it also emerged the willing to collaborate against terrorism an drug-trafficking.
The $8 billion gas agreement between ENI and NOC
The attention towards the Italian-Libyan summit has increased thanks to the $8 billion agreement signed between Eni and Noc, for the development of the so-called “A&E Facilities,” located in the Mediterranean off Tripoli. A contract that at this point reveals itself as another important piece to the Mattei Plan, after the one already affixed in Algeria.
The “historic” contract provides for a significant increase in Libyan gas production and stands as a further decisive step to make our peninsula a true energy hub for the whole of Europe, as hoped for in times not suspected by the current party at the head of the nation.
“Positive mission of the Italian government today in Tripoli. Signed important agreements on cooperation, energy and countering irregular immigration. We also expressed full readiness to facilitate the path to legitimate elections and stabilization of Libya,” PM Meloni wrote on twitter.
Meloni managed to make relevant agreements on the international level, in the name of stability and security, laying a solid foundation for a resolution of the two main European crises.
Thanks to the agreements made and the relations established in recent days, we are on the right path both to achieve a migration policy that simultaneously safeguards the countries of arrival and those of departure, and to achieve that diversification of energy sources, so that Italy is no longer dependent on a single supplier but can itself respond to Europe’s demand for energy.
PM Meloni’s missions to Africa make it possible to face the new challenges with renewed confidence toward the future.
All that remains is to wait for the Italian president’s new trip. She’s flying to Berlin on February 3, in order to address Italy’s role in Europe.
And she will do it protecting, first of all, the national interest.
