Italy’s foreign energy policy and the Mattei Plan: more than meets the eye?

The Mattei Plan represents Italy’s latest attempt to frame its engagement in Africa, integrating economic cooperation with broader foreign policy goals such as development and energy security. The Plan testifies to the Meloni government’s balancing act between a moderate nationalism premised on status enhancing policies, staunch Atlanticism, and a degree of post-ideological Euro-realism. Boosting the country’s projection in Africa was identified as an opportunity enabled by diminishing US interest in the African continent, the EU’s attempt to multiply member states’ efforts and to enhance the role and presence of key Italian industrial actors. By exploring the energy dimension, a key pillar of the Plan, through an analysis of the Plan’s governance structures, funding mechanisms and energy projects, the article examines the extent to which Italy’s foreign energy policy towards Africa is undergoing significant changes. The article explores the extent to which the Plan remains redundant in the area of fossil fuels, while it has the potential to shift the country’s foreign energy policy towards green energy. For the latter, Italian energy companies capitalise both on the government’s action as a status enhancer across the African continent and on its role as financial multiplier vis-à-vis regional and international financial institutions.