Speech by H.E. Moussa Faki Mahamat, Chairperson of the African Union Commission, at the Italy – Africa Summit: A Bridge for Common Growth

Honourable Giorgia Meloni, President of the Council of Ministers of Italy,

Excellencies, Heads of State and Government and Heads of Delegation,

Madam, Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations, my dear Amina Mohamed,

Mr. President of the Council of Europe,

Madam President of the European Commission,

Madam President of the European Parliament,

Mr. Akinwumi A. Adesina, President of the African Development Bank Group,

Distinguished Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

May I, first of all, express my sincere gratitude to you, Madam Giorgia Meloni, President of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Italy, for inviting me to this important Africa- Italy Summit.

I would like also to thank you and the Italian Government and people for the warm welcome accorded to us. Italy, under your leadership, has shown a constant interest in fair and productive cooperation with Africa.

The positions you have taken in international fora in favour of a paradigm shift, in terms of Partnership with Africa, are well received across the Continent.

The new Italian discourse on the imperative need for an innovative Strategy and a Marshall Plan for Africa is well heard in Africa. Echoing such Statements, I would like to highlight two essential points. Some principles must, in my view, be well considered to govern our Partnership, like many others of a strategic nature, including that with the European Union.

On this occasion I welcome the presence of my colleague, Ursula, President of the European Commission, as well as the President of the Council of Europe, my dear friend Charles Michel.

The first of these principles is that of freedom. The international Partnership of the AU is based on a concept of free choice of partner. It is a Partnership, which is not based on any block. When engaging with a partner, we are vigilant about maintaining our total freedom to maintain the diversity of our partners.

We do not impose anything on our partner. It does not impose anything on us. Our Partnership is one of freedom and consensus.

The second principle is that of mutual benefits.

Africa does not come to the partnership empty-handed, as a destitute. Africa engages in its Partnership, according to a balanced relationship, with mutual and shared benefits. This is what will make our Partnership attractive and with incentive.

Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

The second point I would like to make relates to the priorities of Africa.

We are a Continent, grappling with a number of challenges : Security challenges, ecological, health, mobility, technological challenges, financing challenges for our development, integration challenges.

Our priorities obviously emanate from these challenges. If the problem of the development of Africa remains dependent on African will and vision, it is also, given the deep interdependence of global phenomena, dependent on the structuring of the international economic order and governance.

The formulation of our priorities is designed by the Strategic framework of the African Union, Agenda 2063 and facilitated by the strategies developed in the different areas of focus of our Strategic Partnership.

In this vision, Agriculture, Infrastructure, Environment, Energy, Health, Education, Digitalization form the top of our priorities.

Clearly, there are many obstacles to realising such priorities: the heavy debt burden, the effects of Climate Change, the rise of Violent extremism and Terrorism, political and institutional instability, lack of adequate funding and serious governance lapses.

I understand that the Mattei Plan, proposed by Madam President of the Council, about which we would have liked to have been consulted, is consistent with this. Africa is prepared to discuss the aspects and modalities of its implementation. I must stress, here, the need to match actions with words. You will understand that we cannot be satisfied with promises that are often not kept.

Madam President of the Council,

Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Italy is the main drop off point for migratory flows from Africa, across the Mediterranean. It shares, therefore, with Africa the permanent concern about finding a lasting solution to this phenomenon which has become repeatedly tragic.

Not only is mass migration depopulating our Continent of a workforce in its golden age, but it is doing so in unhappiness, extreme precariousness and indignity for our peoples, our youths in particular.

The scope of our Partnership around this issue will remain limited until it culminates in a structural amendment of the development model, including a new approach to the management of migratory flows.

There is no effective strategy here, except only one: transforming the vast regions of poverty, exclusion and human suffering into a space of prosperity and development. The remedy is there. It is in the sharing of prosperity, equality in prosperity. The world is like connected vessels. Fill one and establish the bridge and you will see!

In this fight, Africa is aware that it must assume its responsibilities to promote and enforce the principles of its Partnership on the one hand and to focus this Partnership on its priorities on the other.

Here, to be clearer, I must reiterate some previous statements and strongly underscore that Africa does not extend its hands to partners as a beggar, as asking and not offering anything.

Our ambition is higher. We advocate for a paradigm shift, for a new model of Partnership that charts the path towards a fairer world and therefore, more relevant to building peace and prosperity through bridges of friendship and not barriers of security, perceived as barriers of hostility.

Responsibility is, therefore, necessarily collective. This is the only way for our Partnership to be mutually domesticated, mutually respectful, mutually beneficial. Our sincere wish is that Italy become more involved with us in such a spirit.

This is the quintessence of the message we have come to convey.

There is great hope, that it will usher in a new era in the designing and implementation of our Partnership.

I thank you for your kind attention.