To elucidate some of the major issues about the European Union, I sometimes find it useful to look at the performance of individual states. Two weeks ago, I discussed the French economy, whose woes have cast a pall over the Euro 2016 football championships. For reasons which should soon become clear, today I turn my attention to Italy.

Although the relevant numbers aren’t as large, in many ways the economic failure of Italy is more striking than Greece’s economic implosion – and definitely more dangerous. Italy is the eighth largest economy in the world and has a major presence in important industrial sectors. When a country like this gets into trouble, the consequences are pretty big.

Since the formation of the euro in 1999, the Italian economy has hardly grown at all. The total increase in GDP has been about 3pc. Yes, I do mean the total increase and not the annual average. To put this into perspective, over this period, Spain has managed to grow by 30pc, and the US and the UK by 35pc.

As you might expect, this appallingly weak performance manifests itself in several ugly ways. Unemployment is running at more than 11pc nationwide. But in the south, it is very nearly 20pc. And youth unemployment for the country as a whole is more than 35pc.