All the agreements between Italy and Germany on energy and beyond
The point on the intergovernmental summit between Italy and Germany.
No one in Berlin, at the time of the formation of the Italian right-centre government, would have imagined that within a year Germany and Italy would have made one of the most significant steps in mutual political collaboration. But the signature at the end of the first intergovernmental consultation between the two countries after seven years, which was held in the German capital, sanctioned this step.
The signature was placed on the Action Plan for strengthening bilateral and European cooperation, a range of initiatives that embrace all the main aspects of bilateral cooperation. From the political to the economic and energy one, particularly sensitive in this historical phase, from the European context with themes such as migration, finance and enlargement of the Union to the Western Balkans and to Ukraine and Moldova, to the international one, dominated by the issues of the war in Ukraine , the conflict between Israel and Hamas and the African crises.
After the great cold of the populist era, during the first government of Giuseppe Conte, when the institutional relations between the two countries and governments were reduced to the bare minimum, the road between Rome and Berlin slowly became increasingly busy again. Mario Draghi, who was responsible for planning the intergovernmental consultations, raised the quality of the relationship between the two countries to a higher level. But it is due to the good will of the social democratic pragmatism of Olaf Scholz and the industrious stubbornness of Giorgia Meloni that this relationship developed until the completion of the first extended summit between the ministers of Italy and Germany.
And, as almost all the German media note, some with disbelief, some with surprise and some in a neutral tone as the German public TV news program Adr does, the fact is that "the chemistry between the two heads of government really seems to be working ”, despite the political differences. Scholz did not allow himself to be influenced by judgments and prejudices about the new Italian government, despite the persistent alliance of the Salvinian League with the far right AfD, which however remains a point of mistrust for Berlin. And Meloni, also thanks to an increasingly sincere relationship with the German president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, seems to have managed to avoid the dead end of mannered Euroscepticism. Italy is neither Hungary nor Poland, its status as a founding country of what later became the European Union imposes on it a different role, perhaps more difficult, but certainly more relevant, provided we know it to interpret. It is the advice that Draghi entrusted to Meloni at the time of the handover and the Italian prime minister seems to have internalized it.
The intergovernmental summit in Berlin engaged the two heads of government in an endless series of talks: between themselves, with the ministers of their respective delegations, with the world of Italian and German business. And with the other G-20 leaders, with whom Meloni and Scholz connected together for the Virtual G20 Leaders Summit.
The Italian prime minister arrived in Berlin accompanied by half of the government. The intergovernmental summit in fact saw bilateral meetings between individual ministers, in addition to the plenary meeting with the two heads of government at the end. For Italy, the ministers of Foreign Affairs, Interior, Defense, Economy and Finance, Business and Made in Italy, Work and University were present.
The stated objective in the signed action plan is that of even closer cooperation. One of the main themes was that of security and foreign policy. The launch of a "two plus two" format has been defined, i.e. regular meetings between the Foreign and Defense ministers, a dossier on which Italy and Germany are already moving in the same direction, as was evident both in the Ukrainian case and recently in that of Israel.
“Together we stand with Ukraine, which we support politically, financially, humanitarianly and with weapons and military training,” Scholz said. And Meloni, speaking via video at the G20, stated that "Russia could at any moment easily restore peace to Ukraine by withdrawing from the illegally occupied territories and re-establishing the sovereignty and full territorial integrity of Ukraine".
On the industrial level, an annual forum is intended to accentuate collaboration at an entrepreneurial level between complementary and already extremely intertwined systems. Entrepreneurs from the two countries met in the dedicated Business Forum (which at a certain point Meloni and Scholz joined) and the audience was made up of managers from the main companies. On the Italian side Leonardo, Fincantieri, Snam, Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, Marcegaglia, Seda Group, UniCredit, Beltrame Group, ITA Airways, Generali, Gruppo Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane, Brembo and Menarini, on the German side Siemens AG, Open Grid Europe GmbH, Bayernets, 50Hertz Transmission GmbH, Deutsche Bank, Deutsche Lufthansa AG , Schaeffler AG, Renk and Deutsche Bahn.
Political impetus will make these relations stronger, the two leaders promised, for example in the automotive sector, digitalisation and green mobility. Particular attention could be paid to green hydrogen, for which Italy has already launched numerous projects and Germany has planned huge investments.
Central focus – and it couldn't be otherwise – is the energy theme. Both Rome and Berlin want to expand their energy supply, internalizing the lesson derived from the risks of excessive dependence on a strong supplier, in this specific case Russia for gas. The projects between the two countries have already been studied in recent months and discussed at ministerial level during the summit and include the construction of a hydrogen pipeline between North Africa and Bavaria. The cross-border pipeline infrastructure will be expanded for the so-called Central-Southern Hydrogen Corridor (SCHC), which will pass from southern Germany through Italy and arrive in North Africa, allowing the import of ten million tonnes of hydrogen by 2030.
The countries of North Africa play an important role in the renewed collaboration between Italy and Germany, as Meloni highlighted during the visit. There are important points of agreement for this area, in which there is a need to immediately start new forms of cooperation, in particular with the countries of the Mediterranean region and North Africa, especially on energy issues.
Importing renewable energy from North Africa is also expected to connect Italy and Germany with Austria and Switzerland and contribute to the creation of a larger European hydrogen network. To this end, Germany and Italy also want to promote the production of renewable energy, natural gas and hydrogen on the southern shore of the Mediterranean.
“Italy – confirmed Meloni – is a candidate to become a bridge with Europe to promote mutually beneficial partnerships, supporting the energy security of African and Mediterranean nations and the export of green energy to the rest of the Old Continent”.
Investments are also necessary to address one of the emergencies that Rome and Berlin now feel with the same urgency, that of immigration. The tones remain different, on this aspect Scholz uses softer tones, even if in essence the internal crackdown proposed in recent days constitutes a turning point compared to the more open policies of the Merkel era. On the Italian side, there is always strong annoyance for German maritime rescuers and Meloni continues to think that there is not enough support to curb illegal migration either from the EU or from the German side.
But on the Italy-Albania agreement, received with strong criticism from the internal left-wing opposition, there was no distancing from the German side. Indeed, Chancellor Scholz had said in recent days that he was carefully observing the development of this agreement and, in some sectors of the German government itself, the possibility of experimenting with similar solutions in the future is not excluded.
Finally, tax issues, once central issues in the turbulent Italian-German relations. The ministers monitored were those of Finance, the Northern League member Giancarlo Giorgetti and the Liberal Democrat Christian Lindner, presumably the most difficult interlocutor of this summit for the Italian counterpart, a supporter of the return to the debt ceiling at home and of financial rigor. The Ard news ventures that the good feeling between Scholz and Meloni could help bring the two parties closer on these aspects. At stake is the agreement on the new rules of the stability and growth pact by the end of the year, on which the triangulation with France also plays a role.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/tutte-le-sintonie-fra-italia-e-germania-su-energia-e-non-solo/ on Wed, 22 Nov 2023 16:37:31 +0000.