Rome, Monday November 7th 2022 – “The Egyptian campaign – The affairs of Italian ‘champions’ with the al-Sisi regime” is the new report launched by ReCommon on the day which marks the start of COP27 in Sharm el-Sheik. In the publication, the organization examines the all too close and profitable relationships of the two fossil industry giants, Eni and Snam, of Italy’s leading bank, Intesa Sanpaolo, and of Italy’s public insurer, SACE, with the bloodthirsty regime of Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. In office since 2014, al-Sisi is responsible for the arbitrary detention of thousands of people, countless death sentences following flawed trials and extensive gender discrimination by law. Yet, among EU countries, Italy is Egypt’s first trading partner and the fifth globally, as well as the second largest destination country for Egyptian goods.
It is no coincidence that Egypt is the single country with the largest volume of Eni’s gas reserves, over 20% of the total. Production in the country by Italy’s leading energy multinational, in which the Italian state has a stake, accounts for 60% of the national total. Only initially did Eni make its voice heard in connection with the barbaric murder of the italian researcher Giulio Regeni, only to return unceremoniously to business as usual, at that time represented by the discovery of the huge Zohr gas field. Thanks mainly to Eni’s projects, the al-Sisi regime has gained a leading role on the international energy chessboard.
Recently, Snam, the largest gas transport system operator in Europe, a company also owned by the Italian state, bought 25% of the East Mediterranean Gas Company (EMG), owner of the Arish-Ashkelon gas pipeline between Israel and Egypt, also known as the ‘Peace Pipeline’. An infrastructure that is certainly strategic for energy exchanges between the two countries and crucial for General al-Sisi’s aims, but also opaque in its corporate composition, on which dangerous shadows hang.
All these infrastructure investments are being implemented thanks to credit and financial institutions. At the forefront is Bank of Alexandria, the local subsidiary of Italy’s leading banking group, Intesa Sanpaolo. The Egyptian state has a stake too in Bank of Alexandria, which boasts of being the privileged channel for Italian investments in strategic sectors for Egypt, first and foremost the oil&gas sector and that of arms trade, so ‘dear’ to the regime.
Guaranteeing these relations is SACE, the Italian public insurer controlled by Italy’s Ministry of Economy and Finance, whose historical exposure to the Egyptian regime exceeds 4 billion euros. Egypt’s importance in SACE’s portfolio can be found in two guarantee operations: the one for the MIDOR refinery and the one for the Assiut refinery in February 2022. Both are the largest guarantees ever issued by SACE in the oil and gas sector. For the last one, against the backdrop of the Regeni case, SACE had very little doubt, despite the hesitancy of other Italian financial players involved, such as Cassa Depositi e Prestiti.
Why doesn’t Snam publish the full list of EMG’s shareholders, its business partners in Egypt, and the ultimate beneficiaries of each of the companies that control the Arish-Ashkelon gas pipeline together with Snam? Why did Eni continue to increase its investments in Egypt even after possible links between Giulio Regeni’s murder and the al-Sisi regime emerged? What was the final destination of the huge loans that Intesa Sanpaolo granted to the Egyptian Ministry of Defence and Ministry of Finance? Why did SACE have no qualms about guaranteeing the Assiut refinery, despite other financial actors being concerned about the reputational implications of the Regeni case?
These are the questions ReCommon poses to those directly involved. “It would be desirable, to say the least, to finally shed light on the too many obscure aspects of the relationships between Italy and Egypt, carried out by our industrial and financial ‘champions’,” the organisation’s wish. “If this does not happen, it will be the umpteenth proof that economic interests always prevail over the protection of people’s rights,” it concludes.
