The Italian Prime Minister closes in Algiers the construction of a new gas pipeline to transport hydrogen to the European continent
Giorgia Meloni has taken over Mario Draghi’s agenda in Algeria. The former Italian prime minister bequeathed his successor a battery of energy agreements with the Maghreb country, aimed at reducing its dependence on Russian gas and making Italy an energy logistics center for Europe. The first woman to chair the Council of Ministers, who took office in October amid criticism for her activism in post-fascist movements and her Eurosceptic stances, wants to go further and redouble Draghi’s commitment to the region by focusing on issues such as immigration, economics, and geopolitical conflict resolution.
Meloni chose Algeria for his first official visit to Africa, aware of the importance of their bilateral relations. It was also her first official visit in 2023. “It’s no coincidence,” she said later during a joint press conference with Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune. The Italian Prime Minister landed at Houari Boumedienne International Airport in Algiers on Sunday, where she was received by her counterpart Aiman Benabderrahmane. The welcome on the tarmac preceded an intense day of negotiations which resulted in a series of decisive agreements for Italy and the rest of Europe.
Meloni’s arrival had a patina of symbolism. His visit coincides with the twentieth anniversary of the treaty of friendship and good neighborliness, signed by Rome and Algiers in 2003. “The new Italian government wanted to show the importance of Algeria for Italy as an essential partner and strategically important,” Meloni said. The Algerian government, meanwhile, sees Rome as the main partner to strengthen its energy diplomacy in Europe and wants to extend cooperation beyond gas, says analyst Zine Ghebouli. The interest is mutual and the ground has been prepared.
“We signed the agreement today with the intention of starting the study and later its construction, it is a particular pipeline, not like the one that currently exists, because it will include gas, hydrogen, ammonia, and electricity,” Tebboune announced in the presence of Meloni. The parties intend to build a new gas pipeline linking the Algerian port of Koudiet Draouche to the island of Sardinia, then to the Tuscan town of Piombo, where it is planned to connect it to the national network. It will be an underwater pipeline 284 kilometers long and with a maximum depth of 2,880 meters, reports Agencia EFE.
The Galsi project should start shortly, according to Tebboune. The pipeline will not only increase the volume of gas exports but also transport other types of supplies. Italy would thus become an energy hub for EU partners and would be on the verge of no longer needing Russian gas. In fact, the CEO of Italian energy company Eni, Claudio Descalzi, predicted that this scenario would be achievable as early as winter 2024. Meanwhile, the Maghreb country, which supplanted Russia last year as the main source of gas from Italy, would extend the distance from Moscow.
Draghi paved the way for Meloni weeks before leaving office following the government crisis that ended his year and a half in office. The former president of the European Central Bank (ECB), who was ultimately seen as the savior of the euro during the 2008 crisis, struck a €4 billion energy deal with Tebboune that strengthened relations between the Italian energy company Eni and the Algerian public company Sonatrach. Six months later, the companies signed a memorandum of understanding for technology cooperation in gas flaring, upgrading, and other emissions reduction technologies.
Italy imported a volume of 3.5 billion cubic meters of Algerian gas last year, more than 34 percent of the total supply, according to data from Italian gas company Snam. This is a considerable increase of 2.4 billion cubic meters compared to 2021, but still far from the 4 billion announced by the technical government of Draghi, or even the 3 billion mentioned by Descalzi. Forecasts for the future have been revised downwards.
Meloni did not want to limit his collaboration to the energy sector. “The government intends to strengthen cooperation with Algeria in other areas, strengthening it in the political and cultural spheres,” she told the media. Concretely, the transalpine Prime Minister spoke of the need to weave a “Mattei plan” for Africa, which she mentioned superficially on other occasions, without specifying its content. “It is a model of cooperation on an equal footing with the countries of the southern shore of the Mediterranean, with a view to transforming the various crises into new opportunities and potentialities”, she explained during the meeting. ‘a press conference.
Enrico Mattei, the founder of Eni and standard bearer of the revolutionary new formula of “75-25%”, declared publicly that he would never ask for oil and gas concessions from Algeria before independence, and offered the Algerian interim government crucial advice on how to manage the energy sector before and during the Evian negotiations,” notes diplomat Armando Sanguini of the Institute for the Study of International Politics (ISPI).
Politics and immigration on the agenda
The new Italian government wants to open other, more sensitive files. Meloni seeks to address systemic crises that have historically affected its relationship with North African countries. The massive arrival of immigrants on the Italian coasts keeps open a breach in transalpine society, which has benefited precisely the right-wing bloc parties that make up the executive, such as Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia, Matteo Salvini’s League and Meloni’s Brothers of Italy, who favor a heavy hand against the thousands of people who cross the Mediterranean every year, usually from Libya and Tunisia, the main points of departure, with their destination in Europe.
For this reason, the President of the Council of Ministers discussed with Tebboune in Algiers the situation in Mali and Libya, neighbors in the permanent crisis of Algeria which needs help to remove the problems from its borders. The two men agree to support the Libyan electoral process, which is at an impasse, and, above all, to strengthen security in the Sahel, a region besieged by the advance of jihadist groups and where Meloni has shown himself to be particularly critical of France’s colonial heritage. But perhaps the primary concern of the Italian prime minister in North Africa is the crisis in Tunisia.
Italy has important interests in Tunisia. Among other issues, the TransMed gas pipeline that connects Algeria to Italy, passing through Tunisia, stands out. However, the main headache is immigration. This is the essence of the meeting that took place last week between Tunisian President Kaïs Saied and Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, who traveled with Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi. At the end of the meeting, Tajani clarified that the parties agree that “this is not just a security problem, but to solve it, we must intervene at the root”.
