ROME (ITALPRESS/MNA) – Italy, Germany, Austria, Algeria and Tunisia have signed a joint declaration of intent in Rome on the Southern Hydrogen Corridor, an infrastructure project to transport renewable hydrogen for over 3,300 kilometers from North Africa to Italy, Austria and Germany.
The countries have declared their intention to continue work on the development of the “SouthH2 Corridor” during the first Pentaministerial Meeting, organized at Villa Madama by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and the Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security.
The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Antonio Tajani, and the Minister of the Environment and Energy Security, Gilberto Pichetto, chaired the ministerial meeting. The event was attended by the Algerian Minister of Energy, Mines and Renewable Energies, Mohamed Arkab, the State Secretary of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, Philipp Nimmermann, the Director General of the Directorate for Climate and Energy of the Austrian Federal Ministry for Climate Protection, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology, Jurgen Schneider, the State Secretary of the Swiss Federal Council for Energy, Benoìt Revaz, the Ambassador of the Republic of Tunisia in Rome, Mourad Bourehla, on behalf of the Minister of Industry, Mines and Energy, Fatma Thabet Chiboub, and the Director General for Energy of the European Commission, Ditte Juul Jorgensen.
The ministerial meeting was followed by an entrepreneurial forum, in light of the strategic partnership between Europe and Africa. It was opened by Ministers Tajani and Pichetto, which brought together companies from the countries that signed the declaration, and that already showed or are interested in the hydrogen supply project. The forum hosted two sessions, moderated by the Director General for the Promotion of the MAECI Country System Mauro Battocchi and the Head of the Energy Department of MASE, Federico Boschi, provided an overview of “SouthH2”, recognized by the European Union as a Project of Common Interest (PCI), as well as the opportunities created by the new infrastructure for the interested companies.
The event brought together around 130 participants including institutional delegations and representatives of the industrial sector from the countries involved.
“Italy is working towards the objectives of decarbonization and energy independence in a concrete and pragmatic way, pursuing an energy mix in which renewable sources, hydrogen and nuclear energy are adequately developed. Last November 5, we hosted the first meeting of the Global Fusion Energy Group at the Foreign Ministry, in partnership with the International Atomic Energy Agency, and today we are adding a further piece to our energy strategy with the development of the Southern Hydrogen Corridor, which will further strengthen the role of our country as a European energy “hub”, Tajani stated.
“This agreement has great political and institutional value, because it reaffirms the commitment to cooperation, aimed at the realization of a decisive work for the future of the energy sector of both continents. Italy is ready with its ‘collaborators’ to play a central role also in the hydrogen sector, a vector project towards a renewable and sustainable future”, underlined Pichetto Fratin
– Photo xi2/Italpress –
(ITALPRESS).
