Can pandemic recovery plan end Italy's years of stagnation?
The COVID-19 pandemic hit Italy especially hard, killing more than 127,000 people and sending the European Union's third-largest economy right into a devastating tailspin.
Yet out of that tragedy will come solutions for decades-old problems which have held back growth and productivity - and with them, a new sense of stability for the euro, the currency shared by 19 of the European Union's 27 members. Backed by 261 billion euros from the EU and Italian government, the country's arrange for dealing with the pandemic calls for a top-to-bottom shakeup of a major commercial economy long hampered by red tape, political reluctance to improve, and bureaucratic and educational inertia.
Leading the charge is Premier Mario Draghi, the former head of the European Central Bank, who was tapped as head of a national unity government especially for his financial expertise and institutional knowledge both in Italy and the EU.
The task is formidable: Italy has failed to show robust growth in the more than two decades since it joined the euro currency union in 1999.
Execution of the recovery plan remains a risk given Italy's often-fractious politics.
But "if indeed they succeed with even half, it has a huge impact," said Guntram Wolff, director of the Bruegel think tank in Brussels.
