Italy pledges €400m for Tunisia’s energy transition in new agreement
Italy and Tunisia have reached a €400m agreement to fund transition to green energy in Tunisia, as partnership grows between the two Mediterranean countries.
According to Africanews, the deal was formalized on January 16th in Rome by Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani and Tunisian Foreign Minister Mohammed Ali Nafti, marking a twofold increase from Italy’s previous two-year deal between 2021 and 2023.
The deal forms part of the so-called “Mattei plan” – the name of the founder of Italian national oil and gas company Eni – initiated by Georgia Meloni, seeking to create strategic partnerships with nine African countries.
According to Italy, the plan aims at generating jobs and opportunities in Africa, thereby reducing incentives for migrants to embark on the dangerous migration journey.
This comes after Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni visited Tunisia’s president Kais Saied four times in 2024, in a bid to create a “new approach” to migration and “reciprocal” economic cooperation per Migrants Info.
Meloni has praised their relationship, as both heads of State have implemented anti-migration policies in the past years.
Italy has seen an increase in migrants arrivals in 2023 on it southernmost Sicilian coast, most of them coming from Libya and Tunisia.
On the other end of the Mediterranean, Tunisia has gradually become a hub for migrants coming from the Sahel and Libya in addition to local candidates to migration.
However, Kais Saied has stated Tunisia will not become a processing centre for Europe, opposing the EU’s externalisation policy.
Critics of the plan, according to Info Migrants, worry that the Mattei plan aims at obtaining green energy for Europe, while earmarking funding for the global south almost exclusively to the management of migration.
This comes as Italy has turned to Africa for energy supply after the beginning of the conflict in Ukraine.
In the past years, the building of an electricity interconnection between Tunisia and Italy using European funding was agreed.
Africanews, Info Migration.
