by Andre Coelho | Jul 2, 2019 | News
An European Citizen’s Initiative on the application of a carbon tax-citizen’s dividend scheme has been accepted by the European Commission (May 2019) and is, at the moment, collecting support signatures (up until May 2020).
The initiative calls for the application of a Carbon Fee, collected by European Countries, to be redistributed entirely through the general population, with no attached conditions. The scheme rests on three main pillars: the collection of the Carbon Fee, as upstream as possible in the fossil fuel economic tree; the distribution of the Dividend to European Union (EU) citizens, with only a small part of it used to pay for its administrative costs (governments do not keep any of the collected revenue); the introduction of a Border Carbon Adjustment, guaranteeing that EU businesses and industries do not suffer from unfair competition from countries with no such carbon fee and dividends policies (pollution intensive products entering the EU would pay a tax and exports from the EU would be refunded).
The scheme is based on solid research concerning carbon emissions scenarios, climate change and carbon pricing in order to reach Paris Agreement goals (for the EU). According to the IPCC, carbon prices should gradually be raised to around 13 times what they are today, so that a 2ºC maximum increase in global temperature is attained. Naturally that only rising prices on carbon-intensive products and services is regressive on its own, tending to hit harder on the vulnerable and poor. Hence redistributing the proceeds through the entire population ensures that lower income people will afford to pay for the goods and services they need, and the wealthier – who usually bear a higher per-capita carbon footprint – will generally lose out economically under this policy.
According to the initiative instigators, there is wide support for this kind the general Carbon Fee & Dividend policy, which they hope will be materialized in the collection of signatures process referred to above. This support has been voiced by scientists, economists, NGO’s, industry and EU citizens.
More information at:
“Support the European Citizens’ Climate Initiative” website
André Coelho, “United States: Economists’ Statement on Carbon Dividends”, Basic Income News, January 29th 2019
Jason Burke Murphy, “Carbon Tax and Dividend Endorsed by Irish Prime Minister”, Basic Income News, January 30th 2019
André Coelho, “Michael Howard: “We have two years to avoid climate disaster. A carbon fee and dividend will help”, Basic Income News, January 6th 2019
by Andre Coelho | Jun 3, 2019 | News
Just before the latest European Parliament (EP) elections, held on the 23-26th of May 2019, the Unconditional Basic Income Europe (UBIE) activist group sent out a questionnaire to be answered by candidates, on the subject of basic income. The questions asked for their position on the European social policies, whether they would support European Union (EU) basic income experiments, and if they would vote in favour of a Eurodividend. That questionnaire was inserted in an introductory letter, to be sent to all EP candidates, written by Daniel Kruse.
Only a fraction of EP candidates actually responded, but those that did can find their answers posted here. These views, reflecting the opinions of these candidates from Belgium, Germany, Greece and Ireland, are mostly in favour of experimenting and implementing an EU-wide basic income, with a few variations. For instance, Olivier De Schutter argues that basic income should start for the youngsters, namely those between 18 and 25 years-old, fixed at 60% of the median income of their country. On the other hand, however, Olivier Maingain points out that paying a monthly basic dividend to all EU citizens is not within EU’s powers, at the moment.
Willie O’Dea, from the Fianna Fáil party in Ireland (which had also setup a candidate for the EP elections, Brendan Smith), had written, not long before these EP elections, an opinion article expressing his views on basic income, within a European perspective. In that article, O’Dea also takes the opportunity to clarify a few important aspects about the Finnish (basic income) experiment, linking its design features to its published results until now. According to him, these results are not surprising, given the way the experiment was setup, but are still encouraging, since he considers the social well-being of people to be “real and measurable tangible benefits”.
More information at:
Willie O’Dea, “Universal income pilot could point to a fairer future”, Independent.IE, April 7th 2019
by Toru Yamamori | Feb 23, 2019 | News
The Green European Foundation (GEF) has published its report on UBI: European Green Perspectives on Basic Income, on 18th February 2019.
GEF is one of the ‘political foundations at European level’ (a.k.a. Eurofoundations) that are research and advocacy organisations funded by the European Parliament.
GEF ran a project ‘Basic Income for all EU citizens?’ for the past two years (2017-2018). This report is one of its outcomes. The report’s forewords by Susanne Rieger and Ville Ylikahri outlines the aim of the project: ‘investigating the [UBI] proposal’s potential in relation to employment, the recognition of work beyond paid work, and the gendered division of the labour’ (p.5). This threefold aim is in sharp contrast to the narrow focus of the Finnish Government experiment run concurrently with the GEF’s project. The Finnish Government only focused on employment and paid no attention to unpaid work and the gender division of labour.
The report contains the accessible introduction, ‘Twelve Questions and Answers on Universal Basic Income’ by Natalie Bennet, a former leader of the Green Party of England and Wales. It is followed by 9 substantial articles. The report’s concluding chapter evaluates the EU-wide UBI proposal from ‘Social Europe’ perspective.
GEF continues to work on UBI with its new project ‘Basic Income – European Public Debate’.
You can access PDF of the report or order a hardcopy here.
Image: GEF’s report on UBI, from GEF’s homepage.
Article reviewed by Russel Ingram.
by Daniele Fabbri | Dec 2, 2018 | News
Credit Picture: Green European Journal 2018
The Green European Journal launched the Green Observatory on Basic Income, asking to experts in a series of interviews about the status of universal basic income (UBI) in the political discourse of their country, and the stance that Green, and other progressive parties, show towards it.
The Green European Journal is an editorial indipendent publication of the Green European Fundation (GEF), which is funded by the European Parliament.
The Journal is “a platform to help debates and ideas to travel across Europe’s cultural and political borders, and of contributing to the construction of a vibrant European public space.”
Being UBI something which always interested green circles and movements, for its potential in enhancing individual freedoms and capacities, the Journal decided to investigate the current status of the debate across the political spectrum in Europe.
Interviews:
Belgium – Kim Evangelista
England & Wales – Natalie Bennett
Greece – Constantine Dimoulas
Germany – Wolfgang Strengmann-Kuhn
Finland – Ville Ylikahri
France – Lucile Schmid
Italy – Giuseppe Allegri
Poland – Adam Ostolski
Portugal – Jorge Pinto
Scotland – Jamie Cooke
Spain – Julen Bollain
Switzerland – Irina Studhalter
More information at:
“Green Observatory: Basic income”, Green European Journal, October 17th 2018.
by Andre Coelho | May 24, 2018 | News
Next week – 1 through the 3rd of June – Universal Basic Income Europe (UBIE) activists will be at the EYE2018 event, in Strasbourg. This event is an annual gathering of young Europeans at the European Parliament premises. There, they “come up with ideas for the future of Europe”, “discuss with European decision makers”, and join/meet other interested young people around Europe.
In an attempt to fuel the debate around basic income, UBIE aims at having 20 participants from 10 nationalities, at the EYE2018. There will be activities centered around equality/inequality (named “rich and poor”) and basic income will be discussed, at least, at a roundtable named “Basic Income: Return of Robin Hood?”. This roundtable, happening on Friday, at 11h am, will be organized by the European Parliament and will feature Harro Boven (Economist, Young Democrats (The Netherlands)), Aurèlei Hampel (UBIE), Ilkka Kaukoranta and Daniel Zamora, moderated by Petra Prešeren (RTV Slovenija).
Other event themes are:
- Young and old: keeping up with the digital revolution
- Apart and together: working out for a stronger Europe
- Safe and Dangerous: Staying alive in turbulent times
- Local and Global: protecting our planet
The event’s full programme can be found here.
More information at:
UBIE website
European Parliament, European Youth Event website
