The new Italian and German relations with Algeria in the midst of the energy crisis

Since the war in Ukraine started, the energy crisis has been the most crucial challenge for the EU. The member states work together and separately on solutions for an alternative to Russian gas. In this historical context, Algeria nowadays appears attractive to the EU policy, precisely the new German and Italian foreign/energy policy. The work will answer the question of what the role of North Africa and Algeria for Germany, Italy, and the entire EU could be. Furthermore, the question is how Germany and Italy, Europe’s first and third most significant economies, and their new Scholz and Meloni governments can manage the energy emergency and how that can influence the EU energy policy and relations with Africa, particularly Algeria. Analysing the latest German and Italian diplomatic offensive (narratives and offers) in Algeria amid the energy issues, the work applies the theory of New Intergovernmentalism in European Integration and EU Governance and defensive neorealism-structural realism theory from an International Relations perspective. Consistent with the New Intergovernmentalism theory assumptions, I would argue that national governments play a dominant, growing, and decisive role in the new EU energy policy. This theory explains that member state-self-interest becomes more important, and intergovernmental decision-making seems more prominent. Besides, it emphasizes economic and geopolitical member-state interests. Similarly, from an International Relations perspective, the work will approach Kenneth Waltz’s defensive neorealism theory, where state actors’ primary self-interest is maintaining power and national security in competition with other global state actors; in this case, with Russia and China.