by Karl Widerquist | Mar 10, 2014 | Research
SUMMARY: Europe’s inflexible labour markets are in need of a structural overhaul, which can perhaps be found in the shape of an unconditional basic income. With many commentators calling for widespread reform, members of the EU parliament have a busy year ahead. Could unconditional basic income be exactly what the union needs to boost employment and reduce poverty?
Matthew Timms, “Is unconditional basic income the reform Europe needs?” European CEO. January 29th, 2014.
-Europen CEO
by Karl Widerquist | Feb 27, 2014 | News
UBI: Emancipating European Welfare
After one year of campaigning for the European Citizens’ Initiative for Unconditional Basic Income, we are still actively continuing on the path towards finding an intelligent approach to European citizens’ real needs, particularly those generated by poverty. The Initiative won the support of over 300,000 people in less than a year. Since then, a network involving people and organisations from 25 countries has come together to carry on the Initiative’s aims.
At this conference we would like to consolidate this network by reflecting both on what has happened in the past year and on our future aspirations. Our main aim is for unconditional basic income to be implemented throughout the EU. There are also moves underway to get UBI recognised as a human right under the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights (Article 1: Human Dignity).
We hope that you will be able to attend our conference on 10 April 2014, and actively participate in the discussion of ideas which will be presented there. We would be grateful if we could receive your confirmation by 25 March. Please RSVP by e-mail: conference@ubie.org.
=== AGENDA ===
9:30 – 9:40 am: Welcome from European Economic and Social Committee (EESC)
9.40 – 9.50: Welcome from Barb Jacobson, Chair, Unconditional Basic Income Europe (UBIE)
9:50 – 10:05: Jones Sian, European Anti Poverty Network: Situation with income poverty and hidden poverty in Europe
10:05 – 10:15: Questions & Answers
10.15 – 10.30: Ronald Blaschke, Co-Founder and Member of the Board of Netzwerk Grundeinkommen Germany: Unconditional Basic Income – Consistently against (hidden) poverty and for real freedom for everyone
10:30 – 10:40: Q&A
10:40 – 11:00: Coffee Break
11:00 – 11:15: Elena Dalibot: European Alternatives, Project Coordinator: Citizens Manifesto for European Democracy, Solidarity and Equality – Different Needs and Solutions
11:15 – 11:25: Q&A
11:25 – 11:40: Gerald Häfner, MEP, Greens: Development of ECI and EU-Referendum – tools for more democracy in the EU
11:40 – 11:50 Q&A
11:50 – 12:05 David Casassas, Member of BIEN, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona: Democracy and Unconditional Basic Income
12:05 – 12:15 Q&A
12:15 – 12:30: Werner Rätz, Attac Germany, Working Group Enough for all and Working Group Beyond the Growth: Degrowth, Health and Unconditional Basic Income
12:30 – 1:00 pm Q&A (ten minutes) and General Discussion
1.00 – 2:00 pm: Lunch Break
2:00 – 2:15 – Philippe Van Parijs, Chair of Advisory Board of BIEN: Euro- Dividend – An example for an partial basic income in Europe
2:15 – 2:25: Q&A
2:25 – 2:40: Guy Standing, Honorary Co-President of BIEN: What can we learn from Namibian and Indian experiments with unconditional cash transfers?
2:40- 2:50: Q&A
2:50 – 3:20: BREAK
3:20 – 5:20: Building the European Movement for an UBI – Panel
• Stanislas Jourdan, French Movement for UBI: How the ECI woke up the European movement
• Valerija Korosec, UBI Slovenia: Running in the EU elections for UBI
• Vahur Luhtsalu, UBI Estonia: Learning-by-doing: How we jumped on the ECI-UBI train (and what are the lessons learned)
• Plamen Dimitrov (Bulgarian Trade Union president – CITUB) (tbc)
• Spanish speaker on the National Popular Initiative (tbc)
• Speaker from Scandinavia (tbc): UBI in the context of advanced welfare countries
• Klaus Sambor, Runder Tisch Grundeinkommen Austria: The movement for UBI as part of wider social movements in Europe
5:20 – 5.30: – Closing address
For more information go to: https://www.facebook.com/events/1445383579030636/
by Josh Martin | Feb 17, 2014 | News
[Josh Martin]
In this slideshow, the European Citizen’s Initiative for Universal Basic Income shows the progress it has made in the past year and a half.
Stanislas Jourdan, “2013: The year basic income made it back to the table,” Basic Income Europe, February 3, 2014.
by Karl Widerquist | Feb 15, 2014 | Research
UNICEF Policy and Strategy
SUMMARY: Basic Income for Children (BIC) is a universal income transfer unconditionally granted to all families with children, without means test or work requirement. The authors use the European tax-benefit micro simulation model to estimate the effects of their version of BIC. Their model computes tax liabilities and benefit entitlements for all households in European Union (EU) member states based on representative household survey data from each country. Fixing the poverty threshold at 60% of the median income, they find that a Europe-wide BIC-scheme not adjusted for price differences would reduce the number of children in poverty by 14.2% and the poverty gap by 6.2%. The scheme modeled in the paper, paying €50 per month per child, would cost around €18 billion. That is approximately 13% of the current EU budget, or 0.15% of the combined GDP of all EU member states.
Horacio Levy, Manos Matsaganis, and Holly Sutherland “Child Poverty Insights: Simulating the costs and benefits of a Europe-wide Basic Income scheme for Children,” UNICEF Policy and Strategy, 2014.
