Lawmakers in the Chamber of Deputies voted by 442 to 19 to support the plan, with 51 abstentions.

The upper house Senate followed suit, giving approval late on Tuesday the evening, with 224 members voting for the plan and 16 against, with 21 abstaining.

Some opposition lawmakers complained about the lack of time to study the details in more than 300 pages of reforms.

The decision comes just days before the deadline to submit the plan to Brussels.

The National Plan of Recovery and Resilience (PNRR), funded largely by the EU, will see most of the money go towards providing employment opportunities for women and youth, improving Italy’s infrastructure and boosting green transport and digital innovation.

Describing it as “an investment in the future and in the new generations”, Draghi said the five-year plan would decide the fate and credibility of the country, and pave the way for otherwise “impossible, unthinkable” investments.

“A failure would be serious for us and for the future of Europe,” he said.

“There will not be another opportunity for a common fiscal policy.”

Italy is the main recipient of the EU’s €750 billion post-pandemic recovery plan and is set to receive €191.5 billion in loans and grants between 2021 and 2026.

The government will inject a further €30.6 billion, taking the total package up to €222.1 billion, whose funds will address the economic damage caused by the pandemic as well as issues that have long plagued the country. 

Draghi said that 40 per cent of the funds would be devoted to southern Italy, with the aim of “accelerating growth in the south, which has been still for half a century”.

The plan also includes ambitious reforms targeting Italy’s public administration, taxation and justice system.

The EU’s €750 billion post-pandemic plan to make the economy greener and more digital has been hailed by the European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen as “an opportunity of the century” for the bloc.

Italy will reportedly submit its plan to Brussels by the end of this week, meeting the EU deadline of April 30.

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.

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