Addressing both chambers of Parliament on 14 October ahead of the European Council (15–16 October), Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni laid out Italy’s priorities on migration. Central to her message was the ‘Mattei Plan for Africa’, a strategy that frames migration control as an investment partnership rather than a purely security problem. Meloni urged EU leaders to match national initiatives with ‘ambitious external-dimension funding’ tied to infrastructure and job creation in origin countries. Italy, Denmark and the Netherlands will co-host a working lunch during the summit to showcase public-private pilots ranging from green-hydrogen projects in Tunisia to vocational training for Senegalese youth. Domestically, the premier defended Italy’s tougher NGO-search-and-rescue rules and temporary border checks with Spain as ‘proportionate’, but she pledged faster humanitarian corridors for vulnerable groups and a streamlined work-permit system for sectors covered by the 2026-2028 flow decree. For multinationals, the speech signals continuity: Italy will keep advocating for EU-level readmission deals while using national quota decrees to channel legal labour migration toward industries facing acute shortages. HR and mobility teams should track summit conclusions, as any new EU Trust Fund envelopes could translate into targeted visa schemes or skills-matching pilots as early as 2027.
Source: Agenzia Nova
