Whatever it takes. Whatever it takes. The famous phrase uttered since then president of the ECB, Mario Draghi, referring to the efforts that the Frankfurt institute allegedly made to defend the euro from the economic crisis that was affecting the Eurozone, turns 8 today. It was, in fact, July 26, 2012 when the Italian economist, appointed the previous autumn to head the highest European monetary institution, effectively opened a completely new political and economic phase, which proved to be fundamental in curbing the enormous financial difficulties that many countries were facing at that time.
Many will remember that those were the post-2008 years and the euro area countries were going through one of the most difficult economic situations since the introduction of the single currency: very high spreads in many countries (including Italy), Greece at risk of default and a strong feeling of Euroscepticism - which four years later would lead to Brexit in the United Kingdom - was sweeping through most of the countries of the European Union. Draghi, during a conference in London, with his "whatever it takes" gave the impetus to a package of fiscal and monetary measures that would have protected the euro. Among these is impossible not to mention the innovative Quantitative easing (moreover confirmed by Christine Lagare, who took over from Draghi at the end of 2019) that is an injection of liquidity into the European banking system thanks to the very substantial purchase by the ECB of shares, bonds and government bonds.
Draghi's famous phrase even entered in the Treccani encyclopaedia, who remembers it like this: “The Whatever it takes it opens up another unprecedented horizon in European politics. […] From that moment, Europe can be said to become Mario Draghi's Europe. In retrospect, both admirers and detractors recognize it”.
Furthermore, those words, and above all the strength they have brought with them over the years, are more topical than ever in these days in which Europe, this time not through the ECB but following a historic agreement reached by the Council of Heads of Government, it has once again found the energy and drive – which it has sometimes lacked over the years – to avert another economic disaster. If in fact Draghi intervened, providentially, for save Europe after the great financial crisis of 2008, this time the emergency and the need to send a strong message was dictated by Covid-19, the virus that is bringing economies around the world to their knees, including Europe. The Recovery Fund is, in a certain sense, the new version of the Dragon-like Whatever it takes, pace of sovereignists and Eurosceptics. Exactly 8 years after the original, Europe strikes another blow.
