The Italian Presidency of the G7 in 2024 will be called upon to continue the work established by its predecessors
As if the many internal challenges awaiting Prime Minister Meloni in 2024 were not enough, an international appointment is the one that will perhaps most shape his destiny for next year: the rotating presidency of the G7..
After Germany in 2022 and Japan in 2023, it is Italy's turn to take the reins of the G7 in 2024. And Meloni arrives at this important event after a year in which her authority and international weight have certainly grown greatly. At the end of May 2023, the leaders of the G7 countries met in Hiroshima to reach a consensus on several challenges currently undermining global socio-economic stability. Among them, they called for continued support for Ukraine against Russian invasion, as well as the need for more coordinated responses to China's economic coercion. They also strongly highlighted the various crises that are endangering global sustainable development. This confirms the key role played by the G7 as a geopolitical platform to agree unified responses to those crises that pose an existential threat to both developing and developed countries. Given the complexity of these crises, the Italian Presidency of the G7 in 2024 will be called upon to continue the work established by its predecessors.
The G7 Presidency will offer Italy a unique opportunity to position itself as a strong, credible and effective player in the field of development cooperation both within the G7 and in its relations with the Global South. To ensure continuity, there are some key areas related to development cooperation that the next presidency of the gathering of majors should begin to consider, work on and build consensus within other key multilateral forums, such as the G20. According to economist Marco Fortis, president of the Edison foundation and editorialist of Il Sole 24 Ore, the 2024 G7 presidency will provide a “unique opportunity” for Italy to present “the structural progress made by our economy in recent years, particularly after the pandemic. Considering recent data on the Italian economy, “it is not clear why” Italy “should not have a valuation at least on par with that of France”, Fortis wrote recently in the newspaper Il Foglio.
Based on final data for 2022 and using the 2023 projections from the latest OECD Economic Outlook, Italy is expected to achieve the strongest economic growth among G7 countries in 2022-2023, with a 5% increase in GDP in two years. And if this places the Italian president in a position of certain importance in front of some of his allies, in particular Germany and France, who perhaps never before seem to suffer from the great activism of our prime minister, at the same time the occasion represents a great challenge for those like the Italian Prime Minister, also exploiting these weaknesses, aiming for a leadership role in Europe, on the eve of the important vote for the European Parliament. There are three themes that the Italian presidency wants to put at the center of the international agenda: the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, the fight against illegal immigration and the role of artificial intelligence, a theme on which Giorgia Meloni is focusing so that our country can play a central role in Europe (as also demonstrated by the great commitment in this sense of the Made in Italy minister Adolfo Urso in recent months).
''Italy, in particular, has the opportunity to take on an important strategic role in the discussion on the major issues on the agenda: from the dramatic conflicts underway on the planet to the challenges of artificial intelligence, up to energy and geopolitical issues, counting on the diplomatic skills that President Giorgia Meloni has demonstrated the ability to exercise on a global level.” he said Nicola Procaccini, co-president of the ECR in the European Parliament and one of the prime minister's most listened to advisors on foreign policy. And Meloni's strength, beyond what many of her detractors think, also leverages an economic situation that appears to be among the best in the G7 also in terms of debt. However, Italy's debt grew less in the 2014 decade. 2023 in terms of percentage points of GDP due to seven years of primary government surplus out of ten, and in 2023 Italy will be the only G7 country with a primary surplus.
The Bank for International Settlements also states that Italy has the lowest household and corporate debt among G7 countries and its aggregate debt is the second lowest after Germany. Meloni could finally play on the diplomatic level on many open fronts, first of all the African and Middle Eastern ones as well as the war in Ukraine. A role that Europe seems to have renounced in this last decade, as the Honorable Procaccini explains further: “the G7 is the opportunity to confirm that the world needs Italy and democratic nations, bearers of those principles of freedom and subsidiarity that cannot be abandoned. In this sense, Italy's call to also look to the South of the world will be important, through a cooperation and collaborative development plan with Africa, following the example of the 'Mattei Plan' initiated by Italy”.
And then, as mentioned, the Italian presidency will have to represent a sort of springboard for taking up the third challenge of artificial intelligence as Minister Urso also said in Verona at the end of December “the first ministerial event of the Italian presidency of the G7 will be that of industry and space, which we wanted to restore after a seven-year gap, and we decided to make it happen Verona on March 14th”.
The importance of the topic of AI has also always been underlined by the Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, who during the meeting of the Interministerial Committee for the digital transition held at Palazzo Chigi last November announced, in view of the G7, a international conference on the relationship between artificial intelligence and work. And it is precisely on this path that the particular relationship that the prime minister would have established with is also framed Elon Musk, which also appeared at the Atreju party. In short, the prime minister in the role of president of the g/ which will see its culmination in July in the splendid setting of Borgo Egnazia, in Salento, where the highly anticipated summit of the greats will be held. Perhaps never before could the role of our country have a decisive role in the many matches that will be played between now and the next few months. Giorgia Meloni knows that she absolutely cannot fail for herself, but above all for the country, which, also thanks to her, is slowly returning to the center of the international stage.
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