Italy’s fate, credibility at stake with EU recovery plan: PM

ROME: Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi on Monday presented his government’s 220-billion-euro ($266-billion) EU-funded recovery plan to parliament, saying it would decide the fate and credibility of the country.

“In the set of programmes that I present to you today there is above all the country’s destiny, the extent of its role in the international community, its credibility and reputation as a founder of the EU and leading player in the western world,” he told the lower chamber.

Italy was the first European country to be hit by the pandemic in early 2020 and remains one of the worst affected, with the EU’s highest reported death toll and one of the deepest recessions.

The country is pinning its hopes on a 222.1-billion-euro investment and reform plan funded largely by the European Union. Italy, with the eurozone’s third-largest economy, is set to be the biggest recipient of the bloc’s 750-billion-euro post-pandemic recovery fund.

Draghi, a former European Central Bank chief, was parachuted in to lead a national unity government in February after the previous ruling coalition collapsed.

He told lawmakers Monday that his plan would help “repair the economic and social damage” caused by the pandemic.

More than 119,000 people with coronavirus have died in Italy, while the economy contracted by a staggering 8.9 percent last year and a million jobs have been lost.

But Draghi said the plan also “addresses some weaknesses that have plagued our economy and our society for decades”.

Priorities include infrastructure, notably high-speed railways; green energy, including hydrogen power projects; investment in internet services and digitalisation of public administration. There will be money to help women and young people, who have disproportionately lost out during the pandemic, while around 40 percent will be targeted at historically under-performing southern Italy.

But before Draghi spoke, opposition lawmakers complained that they were given less than 24 hours to study the government’s plan, which is more than 300 pages long.