Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s visit to Algeria brought speculation that the country is looking to forge a new energy policy, but this is just business as usual, former prime minister and current leader of the Five Star Movement Giuseppe Conte told EURACTIV in an exclusive video interview.
Multiple European countries have sought to bolster their energy supplies from African states to tackle the energy crisis triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Meloni visited Algeria on Monday (23 January) to announce her new energy policy and political ties with the country, describing the Rome-Algiers partnership as a new ‘Mattei plan’ – referring to the founder of the Italian oil and gas giant, Eni, Enrico Mattei.
However, such announcements are little more than words, Conte told EURACTIV.
“Frankly, I do not see any signs of a turnaround in Italian foreign policy. Everything seems to be in line with attention to those countries, especially in the North African belt, with which we have historically consolidated relations,” Conte told EURACTIV, dismissing Meloni’s ‘Mattei plan’ as a “slogan without contents”.
“With Algeria, we already had contracts in place at a time of great difficulty when we needed diversification and a different energy supply. So, it seems to me that this visit to Algeria by Meloni is a sign of the consolidation of these treaties, these agreements,” he added.
As prime minister, Conte visited Algeria in November 2018 and January 2020. His successor Mario Draghi visited the country in April and July 2022.
During her visit, Meloni also announced plans to make Italy an energy hub – a proposal criticised by Conte due to the scale of investment needed.
“The Five Star Movement believes that it is an absolute priority to invest in renewables. Because even though the gas market, which has now become in public opinion the most urgent issue to be kept under control, is a market that, the experts tell us, will settle down after 2030, ” he said.
EU policy towards Ukraine
Looking at EU leaders’ response to the war in Ukraine, Conte told EURACTIV that the EU is “not doing enough” to steer the conflict towards a solution, condemning the path of “military escalation”.
“In Ramstein [last week’s international defence meeting for Ukraine], the words ‘peace’, ‘negotiation’ did not resonate. It is now discussed and taken for granted that we only meet to feed military strategies,” Conte said.
The former prime minister stressed his party’s support for Ukraine and condemned Russian President Vladimir Putin’s aggression.
At the beginning of the war, “we supported all aid, including military aid to Ukraine. There was an obvious military asymmetry, and we could not leave Ukraine alone. But a year has passed. Where is this military strategy taking us? There is a deficit of politics,” Conte argued.
The Five Star Movement’s position on the war has been widely criticised in Italy by both left and right-wing parties, who have taken a militarily stronger stance: Meloni, who took office last autumn, immediately offered her military support to Kyiv, while the Democratic Party underlined the need to help those in the line of fire.
An alliance with the Greens?
On the 2024 EU elections, Conte explained that the Five Star Movement is talking with the European Greens about potentially joining them.
“Programmes have a central role to us in the possibility of strengthening our political action and finding interlocutors in a group that can share this project of ours. It is a project that is absolutely built on an effective ecological transition,” Conte said.
“We absolutely want to share a massive investment project for renewable energy. We want to overcome the restrictive austerity policy as an end in itself. These are our ideas, our perspectives. And certainly, that group (the Greens) appears to us to be a privileged interlocutor to pursue these policies,” he added.
The co-presidents of the Greens/EFA group, Terry Reintke and Philippe Lamberts, told EURACTIV that the Italian party approached them, but “there is no commitment at this stage”.
“The discussion remains open. Any possible decision to join Greens/EFA will be taken by the Group at the appropriate time,” they said.
A recovery plan challenged
Conte was leading his second government when Italy’s recovery plan was approved at the EU level in May 2020 after a long and tough negotiation with the European Commission.
However, a row over the expert group appointed by Conte to manage and implement the plan led to the collapse of his government in January 2021, when Mario Draghi replaced Conte as prime minister.
Italy is the single biggest beneficiary of the €750 billion EU program of grants and loans.
The “credibility of Italy” depends on the excellent spending of these funds, said Conte.
The increasing prices of raw materials have prompted some countries, Italy included, to ask for their recovery plan to be amended.
According to the Recovery Plan Regulation, the reforms and investments should be implemented within August 2026.
“2026 is a very close deadline,” said Conte, adding that he expects difficulties with implementation due to high energy prices and the US Inflation Reduction Act, which “risks making EU companies less and less competitive in the future”.
[Edited by Nathalie Weatherald]
Source: euractiv.com
