“Collective efforts, including the signing of a memorandum of understanding by Angola, Zambia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRCongo), the European Union (EU), the United States, Italy and the African Development Bank and the African Finance Corporation, ensure that the Corridor is positioned as a high-impact vector for sustainable development,” read a joint statement issued at the end of the summit by the European Commission, led by Ursula von der Leyen, and the office of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
After Von der Leyen highlighted the Lobito Corridor in her speech at the summit as the “best practical example” of the benefits that can result from strengthening cooperation and partnership between Europe and Africa, this 1,300-kilometre railway project that will link Angola and Zambia via the DR Congo, creating a regional logistics hub for the transport of minerals and agricultural products, was also highlighted in both the joint declaration of Brussels and Rome and in the leaders’ final statements to the press.
“The Lobito Corridor is recognised as a transformative regional project. In addition to being a railway development project, it is also a broader economic corridor that will connect the resource-rich and landlocked regions of southern Africa to global markets, including Europe,” reads the joint declaration.
The leaders present at the Rome summit “reaffirmed their intention to accelerate investments in interconnected sectors, including transport infrastructure, energy systems, agricultural value chains and trade facilitation.”
Welcoming what they say is “the growing alignment between the Global Gateway and the Mattei Plan” – the strategies for cooperation with Africa promoted by the EU and Italy, respectively – Von der Leyen and Meloni stressed the importance of “enhanced coordination with international financial institutions”.
Furthermore, “the leaders recognised the key role of the private sector in delivering the next phase of the Lobito [Corridor], underlining the importance of scalable, climate-aligned and commercially viable investments”.
At the final press conference, which was open to questions and was attended by Meloni, Von der Leyen and the President of the African Union Commission, Ali Youssouf – although the participation of President João Lourenço, who delegated representation at the summit to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Téte António, had been announced – the Italian Prime Minister stressed that the success of the Lobito Corridor initiative, “an ambitious and certainly complex challenge”, depends not only on political will, but “also on the ability to involve the private sector”.
“The challenge for us is for Africa to grow and prosper based on its wealth”, declared Meloni, who promoted the Mattei Plan to limit immigration from Africa while helping the continent’s economy, and who hopes that this investment strategy will help combat “the causes that lead so many young people to pay criminal organisations to undertake dangerous journeys in search of a better life, which societies [in Europe] are often unable to provide”.
In his speech, the President of the African Union Commission assured that the member countries of this organization “truly appreciate this constructive and results-oriented relationship”, considering that the Mattei Plan and the Global Gateway initiative, a 150 billion euro investment package launched in 2022 by the EU, “represent a new level of commitment, and their alignment with the African Union agenda is of the utmost importance”.
“The promotion of trade corridors, such as the Lobito Corridor, will allow our member countries to boost intra-African trade”, he said, adding that the community’s Global Gateway strategy has identified 11 other corridors that could be developed.
“This will certainly change the way of life of our populations and lift millions of people out of poverty”, he stressed.
Hoping that the current high geopolitical tensions “do not divert attention from these critically important partnerships and the objectives set out”, Ali Youssof reiterated that this is the way forward: “We are proud to be able to say here in Rome today that we are now on the right track towards a truly fair and equitable partnership between Africa and Europe”.
The overall value of the shared commitments between the EU and Italy towards the African continent announced at Tuesday’s summit, during which several sectoral agreements were signed, amounted to €1.2 billion.
The joint statement issued by Rome and Brussels announced that “the leaders agreed to review progress on the strategic partnership within the framework of the EU's Global Gateway strategy and the Mattei Plan for Africa at the Global Gateway Forum on 9 and 10 October in Brussels.
