Joint press release by the European Commission and the Presidency of the Council of Ministers of Italy

European Commission - Statement Joint press release by the European Commission and the Presidency of the Council of Ministers of Italy Rome, 20 June 2025 The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the President of the Council of Ministers of Italy, Giorgia Meloni, co-chaired the high-level event ‘The Mattei Plan for Africa and Global Gateway: A common effort with the African Continent' in Rome. The event was attended by African Authorities from Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania, and Zambia, including the Chairperson of the Commission of the African Union. The event was also attended by the heads of international financial institutions, namely the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank Group, the African Development Bank and the Africa Finance Corporation. The European Commission and Italy reaffirmed their strategic partnership under the framework of the EU's Global Gateway strategy and the Mattei Plan for Africa to work with Africa to realise the shared vision for sustainable growth, resilience, and mutually beneficial cooperation. The European Commission and Italy underscored their commitment to mobilising transformative investments along strategic economic corridors, with a focus on the Lobito Corridor. The Lobito Corridor is recognised as a transformative regional project – in addition to a railway development project, it is also a broader economic corridor that will connect landlocked resource-rich regions of Southern...