Brussels 23.07.2023 The international conference on development and migration underway at the Farnesina palace, Rome, was opened by the words of the Prime minister Giorgia Meloni.
“What we are inaugurating is above all a dialogue between equals, based on mutual respect, because there cannot be a competitive or conflictual relationship between Europe and the enlarged Mediterranean because in reality the interests are much more convergent than we ourselves acknowledge”, she said addressing the even.

The conference assembled the leaders of the departure and arrival countries, but also representatives of the Gulf monarchies as well as the African Union, the heads of the EU and international financial institutions.

Today they attend in Rome for the ‘International Conference on Development and Migration’, the event organized by the Italian government in the Farnesina Renaissance Palace, aiming to “launch an international process to implement concrete measures for the growth and development of the enlarged Mediterranean and Africa”.

In a nutshell, “it is the first step towards the elaboration of the Mattei Plan that Italy will illustrate in November on the occasion of the Italy-Africa Conference”, diplomatic sources explain. A design relaunched on several occasions by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and by Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Antonio Tajani.

Offering aid to African countries in a way that they can grow independently thanks to the sharing of skills and funds from Europe, with the aim of slowing down the arrivals of migrants on the Italian coasts. Since the beginning of 2023 the numbers of arrival to Italy via sea increased to 83,400 compared to 34,000 in the same period of 2022.
However to achieve progress “coherent, determined action capable of looking ahead” is needed, the government explains, because only in this way “will it be possible to defeat the criminal activity of human traffickers, supporting and promoting legal migration in a regulated context”. In short, allies are needed, which Rome has tried to find both in Europe and elsewhere thanks to a strong diplomatic operation that seems to have been successful according to the confirmed presences.

The President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and the President of the European Council Charles Michel will be at the Farnesina to represent Europe, but the format also includes the leaders of almost all the states of the southern shore of the enlarged Mediterranean, the Middle East and the Gulf, partners of the Sahel and the Horn of Africa, as well as the states of the European Union of first landing, therefore the most affected by the migratory phenomenon: Greece, Cyprus, Malta and Spain, as well as Italy.

The conference is marked by the absence of France, which is being lately in an argument with Italy. The two countries do not agree on migration policy. Since the far right came to power in Italy in October 2022, Paris and Rome have had heated exchanges on the thorny issue of immigration, which has been a sensitive subject in Franco-Italian relations for years. The remarks of Interior Minister Gérard Darmanin, last May, who judged that Giorgia Meloni, the President of the Italian Council, was “unable to resolve the migration problems on which she was elected”, led to a peak in tensions, while the number of migrants at the Franco-Italian border is rising sharply.