Good afternoon everyone.
I wish to thank Prime Minister al-Dabaiba and the Ministers of the Libyan Government of National Unity for their extraordinary welcome on this important day. 

It is no coincidence that this visit to Tripoli is one of my first official trips in the Mediterranean area, showing that Libya is a priority for Italy, a priority for stability in the Mediterranean, a priority for Italy’s national security, a priority for a number of the major challenges Europe is facing at this time, such as the energy crisis for example. 
We have spoken with the Prime Minister and his delegation about the situation in Libya, reiterating Italy’s full readiness to support the legitimate, the right, path that is required for elections to be held and for the country’s stabilisation.

Stabilisation of the political and security situation is essential for our bilateral partnership to have even more potential than our current, already very important, partnership has. We are bound together by centuries of shared history; we are connected through bilateral cooperation, which can be further expanded and deepened in numerous sectors. 
We appreciate the commitment confirmed by the Government of National Unity to call presidential and parliamentary elections as soon as possible. We hope this commitment can quickly result in programmes and tangible actions, mediated by the United Nations.

Fully respecting Libyan sovereignty, we believe a broad political compromise at national level can help to overcome the current stalemate. An agreement should deal with the main unresolved issues: the constitutional basis, distribution of resources and institutional framework that will lead the country to elections.

Italy is committed to doing its part and shall continue working to ensure above all greater unity of intent among the international community regarding Libya, in order to avoid the risk of certain external influences making efforts to destabilise the situation rather than support it.

For us, Libya is also an economic partner of absolute strategic importance. We have noted, and indeed have both mentioned, that there has been continuous consolidation of our commercial relations, as can be seen by the 180% increase in trade volumes in 2021 compared with the previous year; this positive trend also continued in 2022. Italy remains Libya’s number one partner and number one client.
This means that Libya is a strategic market for our companies. This is the case, for example, in the energy sector, and I shall be talking about that in a moment, as well as regarding infrastructure, in relation to which we have many ongoing initiatives and projects. The Prime Minister recalled the 2008 ‘Friendship Treaty’, the most significant element of which, in terms of Libya’s development, was the highway project. We want to pursue the commitments undertaken. It is very important, and we have spoken about this, to begin work on Tripoli’s international airport as soon as possible, because having adequate safety standards clearly also means starting direct flights between Libya and Italy again as quickly as possible. This is a fundamental condition for connecting our countries, and so we have talked about how to overcome the deadlocks there may have been in the past in order to once again begin working on our comprehensive cooperation.

For Italy, cooperation on countering irregular migration flows remains fundamental. This is a key issue for us. Despite the efforts made also by the Libyan authorities, despite our efforts, irregular migration numbers from Libya to Italy remain high. Essentially, over 50% of irregular entries into Italy are people coming from Libya. We believe efforts to combat human trafficking and smuggling must be strengthened, of course ensuring humane treatment of the people involved. We remain determined to confirm our ongoing commitment to support the Libyan authorities in managing flows and providing assistance to local communities (we have, among other things, our migration fund initiatives); however, we believe that more can and must be done in this regard. We are ready to do our part.

We have spoken about, and continue to discuss, how to strengthen tools to combat illegal migration flows; this issue does not regard only Italy and Libya, but must concern the European Union as a whole, and European cooperation with North Africa, because the most structural way to deal with the issue of migration is to allow people to grow and to prosper in their own nations, and this is achieved by helping those nations to grow and to prosper. This is one of the issues that will be discussed at the next European Council meeting: defence of the external dimension; cooperation, particularly with North African nations; the priority of the Central Mediterranean route, as Italy requested.

Italy’s contribution to stabilising Libya must lead to a positive impact in terms of migration flows and the fight against irregular migration. On this important day, we have adopted an agreement, signed by our respective Foreign Ministers, whom I thank, the aim of which is to strengthen capacity and cooperation with the Libyan authorities in relation to coastguard activities. Minister of the Interior Piantedosi is also here. We must also thank him and the Libyan Interior Minister for this important initiative.

Another key issue regards the longstanding and solid cooperation between Italy and Libya in the field of energy. Energy represents one of the most significant contributions that can be made to achieving stability and growth in Libya. ENI has been operating in Libya since 1959 (I thank Claudio Descalzi for being here today), and indeed has contributed to an important part of Libya’s history and economic development over recent years. Thanks to the Green Stream gas pipeline, we now also share a key tool to support the energy supply diversification process, and today’s signing of the agreement between ENI and NOC is a very important, historic step as part of the long and fruitful cooperation between Italy and Libya. The agreement relaunches a number of initiatives to diversify energy sources and to work on the sustainability of energy sources. The purpose of this initiative is above all to guarantee energy for Libyan citizens and to ensure greater flows towards Europe as part of a project that Italy is vigorously pursuing (which Italian media are already familiar with and which is beginning to become known also outside of Italy): making Italy an energy supply hub for all of Europe, thereby helping Europe with its energy supplies at a time of difficulty and giving our nation a more strategic role.

In this context, Libya is a fundamental partner, so I imagine this is only the first of many initiatives. Libya knows it can count on Italy with regard to political stabilisation and the process toward quick elections as well as in terms of economic support, infrastructure, investments and comprehensive cooperation between two nations that have been friends for a long time and, together, have to resolve important problems, with an ability to be concrete, which is something we can certainly demonstrate and build on a lot in the future.
Thank you.

[Courtesy translation]