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Giorgia Meloni’s Foreign Policy and the Mattei Plan for Africa | IAI Istituto Affari Internazionali

Despite Italy’s economic significance as the Eurozone’s third-largest economy and founding member of the G7 and NATO, the country has struggled to translate its economic power into political influence. Yet, with Giorgia Meloni’s ascent to power, Italy’s approach to foreign policy appears to be evolving. In fact, since the very beginning of her term, Meloni displayed a rather bold approach towards reshaping Italy’s international status.

As the President of the Council of Ministers – analogous to the post of Prime Minister in other countries – Meloni has adopted a distinct posture in addressing issues related to the Southern Mediterranean. Since taking office in October 2022, Meloni has made numerous visits to North Africa, engaging in a diplomatic offensive aimed at reinvigorating Italian policies. In January this year, following in the footsteps of former Prime Minister Mario Draghi, Meloni travelled to Algeria on her first bilateral visit abroad. Algeria is an instrumental country for Italy due to its vast hydrocarbon reserves and geographical proximity.[1] In 2022, Draghi paved the way for Algeria to become Italy’s top energy supplier, replacing Russia and thus allowing for a swift decoupling from Moscow as the Ukraine war rages on and energy prices continue to soar.

Meloni’s posture in Algeria seeks to evidence her willingness to move beyond a mere set of energy memorandums and broaden Italy’s foreign policy to include strategic diplomacy with long-term goals. She described Algeria as Italy’s “most stable, strategic and long-standing” partner in North Africa,[2] and reassured President Tebboune that Italy stands by Algeria. The country has recently felt cornered following Morocco’s joining of the Abraham Accords, a feeling few other countries aside from Italy had the courage to assuage and which had pushed Algeria further towards Russia and China as a result.

Meloni’s activism in North Africa did not end there. The prime minister and her cabinet promoted high-level missions and diplomatic efforts with Libyan government officials, allowing Italy to reap diplomatic wins in the energy field. In January, a few weeks after visiting Algeria, Meloni flew to Tripoli for a meeting with Libya’s UN-backed Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh. The visit led to the signing of an 8 billion US dollars gas deal between Italian energy company Eni and Libya’s National Oil Corporation (NOC).[3]

Then, in May, Meloni hosted Benghazi militia leader Khalifa Haftar in Rome to discuss the surge in migration;[4] and the following month, she met Dbeibeh to discuss the economy as well as energy and infrastructure projects, stressing the importance of Libyan stability for Italian interests. By discussing political and economic priorities with both Libyan leaders, Meloni seemingly went beyond the transactional approach that Italy (and Europe more broadly) has long adopted vis-à-vis North Africa promoting a more comprehensive framework which seemingly seeks to embrace the region’s own priorities as well.

Similarly, Meloni held several high-level meetings and signed strategic partnerships with Tunisia, a country that currently faces deep economic and political challenges. Since June, Meloni has met with Tunisia’s President Kais Saied three times. Initially aimed at unblocking International Monetary Fund (IMF) funds to help macroeconomic stability in the country, her later visits, which she undertook with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Former Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, underscored the need to find long-term solutions to stabilise Tunisian finances while improving migration cooperation. In Tunis, the leaders stressed European support and announced a package of assistance which includes 150 million euro in budgetary support for Tunisia to avert an economic default.[5]

Meloni has framed her Mediterranean diplomacy as part of a broader initiative termed the “Mattei Plan for Africa”.[6] Named after Eni’s founder Enrico Mattei, the initiative seems to be aimed to encourage a holistic approach to dealing with African countries of interest to Italy. It also aims to turn Italy into an energy hub between North Africa and Europe. Through the construction of new pipelines, Italy would become an exporter of both natural gas and hydrogen to countries such as Germany and Austria and the gateway linking North Africa to Central and Northern European countries.[7] Given Europe’s vital role for North African trade, these deals could become pivotal in securing long-term strategic gains for both sides of the Mediterranean.

The specifics of the Mattei Plan remain undisclosed. Very little is known about the plan, and some fear that its true nature is simply linked to the goal of curbing irregular migration to Italy. In fact, Meloni’s stance on migration has long been a controversial topic of discussion in Italy, one that has awarded her criticism from state authorities and segments of the public at large.

It is through this lens that the international community should view Meloni’s proactive diplomacy in North Africa. Alongside the energy and economic priorities, the issue of irregular migration has always managed to creep onto the agenda through the back door. On Libya, Meloni discussed the issue at length with both Haftar and Dbeibeh, and Italy has recently donated five vessels to the Libyan coastguard in Tripoli to enhance security operations in the Mediterranean.[8] In Tunisia, Meloni shied away from making any public statements on President Kais Saied’s reversals of the country’s fragile democratic transition.[9] Instead, during her visit with von der Leyen and Rutte to Tunisia, the three European leaders announced the immediate release of 105 million euro to assist the Tunisian coastguard and border police.[10]

Whether Giorgia Meloni’s Mattei Plan truly seeks to help alleviate poverty and exploitation in Africa through comprehensive and holistic approaches remains to be seen, and Tunisia might hold the keys to this verdict.

Indeed, the real litmus test for Meloni’s Mattei Plan for Africa is the developing situation in Tunisia, once considered the only successful case of democracy emanated from the so-called Arab Spring. Post-revolution elites in Tunisia did not operate successfully in managing the economy or the social development of the country and actually brought it to the verge of collapse by the end of 2018. The delegitimisation of the political class became evident in the 2021 presidential elections, when the vast majority voted for the outsider and relatively unknown constitutional law professor, Kais Saied, and his programme of state renewal and anticorruption.

Saied took the wishes of his electorate to the extreme and by December 2022 centralised most powers around his person, becoming a de facto authoritarian ruler. Meanwhile, as conditions worsened in the country and the Tunisian president himself increasingly scapegoated black African migrants in Tunisia, many opted for the solution of last resort: emigration to Europe. The number of illegal migrants, mostly of non-Tunisian origin, reaching Italian shores rose almost threefold by July 2023.[11] Tunisia, meanwhile, gradually replaced Libya as the major departure point for migrants seeking to reach Europe via Italy.[12]

As a consequence, the Meloni government ultimately replicated past attempts to address illegal migration: it revived the classical transactional approach of providing resources to North African authorities in exchange for cracking down on smugglers who facilitated illegal crossings.

Yet, Italy’s previous policies, such as those adopted in Libya since 2017, have proven ineffective. Ultimately, they have empowered smugglers and their associates within North African security forces, while not resolving the issue of migrant crossings and severely damaging Italian and European moral credibility in the process.[13] The lack of effective governance in Libya allowed smugglers to exploit the situation and continue their activities by extorting the government for financial gain. Moreover, migrants who were returned to Libya often endured harsh conditions, including detention, exploitation and abuse in Libyan facilities. These conditions, consequently, drove migrants to reattempt the perilous journey again, perpetuating a cycle of smuggling and irregular migration.

For Giorgia Meloni’s vision of a “virtuous model of collaboration and growth” between the EU and African countries[14] to succeed, Tunisia’s fate will be decisive. Tackling the migration issue requires comprehensive solutions that address the root causes of migration: poverty, conflict and lack of opportunities. Failing to do so may result in a serious migration crisis, which no amount of coastguard financing can avert.

The coming trip of Meloni to Washington DC carries important significance in the sense that it can help reiterate the strategic importance of North Africa to the US and its vital significance for the EU. Meloni has the chance of convincing US President Joe Biden to invert trends of US retrenchment from the Mediterranean and recognising the important role allies like Italy can play in the region as Washington contends with other competing priorities. A wider involvement of the US administration may also help to ensure that any new European-led approach to the Mediterranean carries within it a strong commitment to human rights and the rule of law. Such elements will prove indispensable for the success of Meloni’s new activism in the Mediterranean – including the much-awaited Mattei Plan for Africa – and in improving EU policies and credibility in the area as well.


Karim Mezran is Director of the North Africa Initiative and Resident Senior Fellow with the Rafik Hariri Center and Middle East Programs at the Atlantic Council’s Middle East Programs. Alissa Pavia is Associate Director at the Atlantic Council’s North Africa Program.

[1] Benjamin Dodman, “Italy Plays on Historic Heartstrings with Algeria to Boost Critical Energy Ties”, in France 24, 23 January 2023, https://www.france24.com/en/africa/20230123-italy-plays-on-historic-heartstrings-with-algeria-to-boost-critical-energy-ties.

[2] Colleen Barry and Andrea Rosa, “Algeria, Italy Look to Broaden Ties Beyond Coveted Energy”, in AP News, 23 January 2023, https://apnews.com/cc5bd14001637f121ecc46e9b0a700dc.

[3] Gavin Jones, “Italy’s Eni Signs $8 Billion Libya Gas Deal as PM Meloni Visits Tripoli”, in Reuters, 29 January 2023, http://reut.rs/3wCNEnq.

[4] “Meloni and Haftar Talk Migrant Flows to Italy”, in Ansa, 4 May 2023, https://www.ansa.it/english/news/world/2023/05/04/meloni-and-haftar-talk-migrant-flows-to-italy_df89a23d-ecff-47e3-b20d-bd54ef6e461c.html.

[5] Jorge Liboreiro and Vincenzo Genovese, “The Contentious EU-Tunisia Deal Is Finally Here. But What Exactly Is in It?”, in Euronews, 17 July 2023, https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2023/07/17/the-contentious-eu-tunisia-deal-is-finally-here-but-what-exactly-is-in-it.

[6] Silvia Sciorilli Borrellin, “Italy Renews Its ‘Mattei Plan’ to Develop Energy Ties to Africa”, in Financial Times, 11 January 2023, https://www.ft.com/content/05d17d35-b0c3-47d2-b6b7-6f7d65d758fc.

[7] Francesca Landini, “Italy, Germany, Austria Sign Letter to Support Hydrogen Pipeline”, in Reuters, 9 May 2023, https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/italy-germany-austria-sign-letter-support-hydrogen-pipeline-2023-05-09.

[8] Cesare Treccarichi, “Cos’è il Piano Mattei di cui parla tanto Giorgia Meloni”, in Today, 14 April 2023, https://www.today.it/economia/piano-mattei-governo-meloni-africa-gas-cosa-e.html.

[9] “Italy Calls Med Migration Conference on Tunisia Model”, in France 24, 23 July 2023, https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20230723-italy-calls-med-migration....

[10] Jorge Liboreiro and Vincenzo Genovese, “The Contentious EU-Tunisia Deal Is Finally Here. But What Exactly Is in It?”, cit.; European Commission, EU Comprehensive Partnership Package with Tunisia, 11 June 2023, https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/FS_23_3205.

[11] Italian Ministry of the Interior, Cruscotto statistico giornaliero, last updated on 26 July 2023, http://www.interno.gov.it/it/node/8686.

[12] Monica Pinna, “Crisi migranti nel Mediterraneo: dalla Tunisia all’Italia, chi si imbarca verso l’Europa?”, in Euronews, 1 June 2023, https://it.euronews.com/2023/06/01/crisi-migranti-nel-mediterraneo-dalla-tunisia-allitalia-chi-si-imbarca-verso-leuropa.

[13] Alexander Bühler et al., “On the Trail of African Migrant Smugglers”, in Spiegel International, 26 September 2016, https://www.spiegel.de/international/world/migrant-smuggling-business-means-big-money-in-libya-a-1113654.html.

[14] Italian Government, President of the Council of Ministers Giorgia Meloni’s Parliamentary Address on the Government Programme, 25 October 2022, https://www.governo.it/en/node/21000.

EU Ombudsman to ACT: case opened - deadline 16 August

From: Euro-Ombudsman <EO@ombudsman.europa.eu>
Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2023 at 12:27
Subject: Complaint 1327/2023/LM
To: arundohle@gmail.com <arundohle@gmail.com>
 



 

The failure by the European Commission to take a final decision within the applicable time limit on a request for public access to documents concerning a CJEU case related to OLAF’s decision not to open an investigation

 

 

Volusia mother accused of ‘adoption fraud’ after agreeing to give away child

Volusia mother accused of ‘adoption fraud’ after agreeing to give away child


VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. – A Daytona Beach woman was arrested last week after being accused of “adoption fraud,” according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

FDLE said that Melinda Myles, 31, had agreed to place her child for adoption while she was pregnant, receiving financial assistance from the prospective adoptive parents in return.

In an affidavit, agents said that during the 2022 pregnancy, Myles had an open case with the Department of Children and Families regarding her other four children, and so she opted to terminate her parental rights over the prenatal child.

Myles had originally asked the prospective parents to be present at the child’s birth, but before the birth happened, she told the couple that she had COVID-19 to keep them from coming to the hospital, the affidavit shows.

Andrea is adopted: - Just wanted to be Norwegian

Andrea Johanna Bratt Mæhlum is born in Latin America in the 80s. Before she is five, she has already been moved between two orphanages. At the age of six, she is flown to Fornebu in Oslo, where she and her siblings start a new life.

One January day in 1989, a plane from Costa Rica lands at Fornebu airport.

Six-year-old Andrea Johanna sits on board with her two siblings. This is the first time they will set foot on Norwegian soil.

It is the mildest winter in years, with an average temperature of 2.4 degrees in Oslo. Nevertheless, it is as if a wall of ice hits Andrea in the face as she steps out of the plane.

A new family of five goes out excited and expectant. No one knows what their new everyday life will be like.

Lilian Thybell

Lilian Thybell

 

Lilian Thybell is a nurse and midwife. For 25 years, she has worked and lived in various Asian countries, including Vietnam. In the years 1996 – 2002, she worked for a SIDA-funded project aimed at reaching vulnerable groups in remote villages in northern Vietnam. Lilian specialized in teaching illiterate ethnic women. It was like breaking ground, no one believed that non-literates could learn anything and the perception was that they were less intelligent. The program was a success, Vietnam's Ministry of Health adopted the curriculum and continued to develop it further to reach more women among the minority groups. Lilian has been a valued tour guide for both study trips and holiday trips in, among other places, the Philippines, Thailand, India and Israel. During her six years in Vietnam, she built up a network of contacts which she maintained.

Bombay High Court gives child welfare panel 48 hrs to hand over custody of child to father - India Today

The Bombay High Court has lashed out at the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) of Maharashtra for putting up a child for adoption while the child's father was seeking his custody. The high court bench directed the CWC to get its act right in 48 hours, or else the court would pass an order.

"Tell us, if the mother has abandoned the child, then the biological father has no right? We don't understand how CWC is conducting its cases. This is nothing but high handedness by the CWC. Are they above the law?" the bench of Justices Revati Mohite-Dere and Gauri Godse said on Wednesday.

The bench was hearing the petition of a man who had run away with a 16-year-old minor girl and the two had a child. The girl's family registered a case against the man under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) and he was arrested.

However, when the girl turned major, she abandoned the child and got married to someone else. The man came out on bail and sought that he be given custody of his child. However, the CWC rejected his application and put up the child for adoption.

Advocate Ashish Dubey, appearing for the petitioner, pointed out that the child was neither abandoned nor orphaned and so the CWC could not have put up the child for adoption. "Adoption will come into the picture only when both parents have abandoned the child...Why do you want to give the child for Adoption? Will the child go to the biological parent or a third party?" Justice Dere asked.

Adopterad Fran Srilanka/ Indien Till Sverige

Adopterad Fran Srilanka/ Indien Till Sverige

Adoptees from Sri Lanka hold the state liable for abuses

Eight adoptees sued the State for negligence in their adoption from Sri Lanka in the 1980s. They argue that the government did not intervene even though it should have known about the many abuses. The adoptees want the government to recognize this negligence and reimburse the costs they incurred to trace their origins.

"We want the judge to determine that the government is liable for the damage suffered by these eight people," says lawyer Mark de Hek, who started the legal proceedings on behalf of the victims. The hope is that there will also be justice for other adoptees in a similar situation.

Child theft and baby farming

It has been known for decades that many things went wrong with adoptions from Sri Lanka. The first signals date from 1979. Since then, stories have regularly emerged about incorrect files, baby theft, so-called baby farms and human trafficking. In 1987, a Sri Lankan study found that the vast majority of adoptions were illegal.

The fact that the Dutch state was repeatedly informed of abuses from Sri Lanka from the early 1980s was evident from the report of the Joustra committee in 2021. At the request of the government, that committee investigated the role of the Netherlands in international adoption. The abuses included baby farming and child theft. According to the committee, the Netherlands did not intervene and the government did not come up with solutions.

"Was my mother paid to give me up?" Looking for government recognition for mistakes in adoption

"Was my mother paid to give me up?" Looking for government recognition for mistakes in adoption


Eight adoptees from Sri Lanka are holding the Dutch state liable for abuses during their adoptions. Sam van den Haak, one of them, explains the extent of the damage and the questions she has struggled with all her life.

Anneke StoffelenJuly 25, 2023, 6:43 PM
In a personal interview in the newspaper, it is customary to mention the age of the interviewee. In the case of Sam van den Haak, who was adopted from Sri Lanka, this is not easy. If you base it on the date in her Dutch passport, she would have celebrated her 42nd birthday at the beginning of this month. Or do you, like Van den Haak herself, follow the version of her later found Sri Lankan grandmother? She said that her granddaughter was born on December 17, 1981. In that case, Sam van den Haak is now 41.

A date of birth is an obvious detail for others that you rarely think about. For Van den Haak it has become a crucial part of her story. 'Every time I request a repeat prescription from the pharmacy, I give an incorrect date of birth and am reminded that I am a victim of adoption fraud.'

Van den Haak published a book about that turbulent history last year with the telling title Not born on my birthday. Together with seven other adoptees, she is now starting a collective lawsuit against the Dutch state. The adoptees argue that the government, as supervisor, is liable for the abuses during their adoptions, which were arranged by the Flash foundation. Since the late 1970s, Flash has been publicly associated with baby trafficking and adoption fraud. But according to lawyer Mark de Hek, the government deliberately looked the other way.

About the author
Anneke Stoffelen is a reporter for de Volkskrant and writes, among other things, about the multicultural society. For the podcast series A Kind of God, she investigated how people end up in a cult.

As a result, some of the Sri Lankan adoptees will probably never manage to find their biological family again. The adoption files are missing all kinds of basic documents, such as waivers from the biological mothers. Personal data is also regularly falsified.

Little information in adoption file
When requesting her adoption file, Sam van den Haak discovered that 'there's actually not much in it'. It does not contain the details of her biological mother, let alone a document in which the woman declares that she is renouncing her daughter. Her birth certificate is also missing. Strangely enough, her Dutch surname is already mentioned in the Sri Lankan passport with which the adoption was arranged at the time. "So that must have been forged," Van den Haak concludes. On the handwritten document, the numbers have been scribbled with a pen, so it is not entirely clear which day of birth is meant - in her adoption file it was April 7, in her later Dutch passport it was July 4.

Also missing is a report from the Child Protection Council showing that her adoptive parents were screened before they were allowed to pick her up from Colombo as a toddler. That's strange, Van den Haak thinks, because the couple who adopted her already had three sons, two of whom have severe multiple disabilities. "In the 1980s, relatively little was known about the consequences of adoption, but was there no one who could have imagined that there was no room in this family for another child with special care needs?" she wonders.

As a lively little child, she ended up in a Hoorn household where, in her memory, it always had to be quiet. 'I used to, and still do, prefer to do things together with someone else. But in our family it was always every man for himself. One was doing a puzzle and the other was reading the newspaper. I didn't fit in there at all.'

Sexual abuse
Van den Haak saw little love in the marriage of her adoptive parents. In her opinion, this was the reason why her adoptive father sexually abused her from the age of 6 onwards. As a girl who craved attention and affirmation, she often crawled into her adoptive parents' bed in the morning, looking for cuddles. Once her adoptive mother left, those hugs turned into "things an adult should never do to a child."

For years, Van den Haak was under the impression that this was normal. 'I thought this was the way you, as a parent and child, show that you love each other. Until I was 14 and started having boyfriends, and discovered that you're not supposed to do these things with family.' Years later, when she wanted to file a report, she heard from the police that the case had already expired. Her adoptive father has always denied the abuse. Her adoptive mother kept a low profile and did not support her daughter. Van den Haak therefore no longer has contact with them.

Her unhappy childhood made the question that almost all adoptees ask themselves at some point even more pressing: how would my life have turned out if I had not ended up in a strange country, with strange parents?

Address on a note
Van den Haak traveled to Sri Lanka for the first time in his twenties. An intermediary there initially had bad news: based on the scant information in her adoption papers, it seemed impossible to find her biological family. But there was a blessing in disguise: when her biological mother gave her daughter to the Dutch in 1984, she had placed a note in the hands of Van den Haak's adoptive mother with her address scribbled on it. The note had been kept all these years. And although her biological mother died of cancer in the 1980s, Van den Haak was able to use that information to find her grandmother, plus a brother and a sister.

'At the first meeting I was sceptical. The intermediary who had helped me with the search told me that relatives of adoptees often ask for money very quickly. So I had planned to keep an appropriate distance. But when I arrived at that little old house without electricity, it turned out that my brother was even more skeptical. The first thing he did was take my hand and study my fingers. I thought: what is he doing? Until he discovered the scar he was looking for. “Nangi,” he said, which means little sister.”

The scar was proof to him that Sam was who she said he was, he said later. 'He could still remember me helping him cut bamboo as a small child. I then had to hold the stems. He once accidentally chopped my finger, that's what left the scar.'

In the passport photos he showed of their mother, she immediately recognized the woman from the photos from her own scrapbook, taken by her adoptive parents. Then all doubts were gone.

The meeting with her brother and grandmother was warm (with her sister, whom she only meets later, the contact is more complicated). This caused Van den Haak to wonder how necessary it actually was for her to be given up, if there were family members who would have wanted to care for her. Her grandmother, now deceased, said that her mother harbored a secret. She is said to have feared that she would be expelled from their village if the truth about her daughter's conception came out.

Compensation
But Van den Haak was never able to unravel the complete story surrounding her adoption. 'Was my mother paid to give me up, temporarily or otherwise? I do not know. My file does show that my adoption cost more than 10,000 guilders, a large part of which went to mediation organizations.'

In the upcoming lawsuit, adoptees will demand compensation for the costs they have had to incur in the search for their family - searches that in many cases have not led to anything. In addition, it will also involve compensation for the psychological suffering: growing up in an environment in which you find little recognition and the feelings of uprooting that follow some people for the rest of their lives.

Yet Van den Haak wants to emphasize that as far as she is concerned, it is not an exclusively gloomy story. 'I've been through a lot and there was a period when I didn't even want to live anymore. But my story shows that you can get out of it.' As a former Dutch teacher, she has written her book especially in understandable language for young people, so that they may find hope in it when they are going through a difficult time. 'I believe that you can always choose to make something of your life. I am now very happy with my son. I am also proud of the company I founded, with which I organize pub quizzes for companies.'

For her, the lawsuit is not about compensation. However, she does want the government to acknowledge the mistakes of the past, so that these problems are prevented in the future. And what would be the best and most important outcome for Van den Haak: that a passport would one day be arranged for her with her real date of birth in it.