by Sandro Gobetti | Nov 17, 2015 | News
Note: we are reporting on a past event. June 6, 2015 was promoted as the national day “for a guaranteed income and dignity” within the campaign “100 days for a guaranteed income and for dignity”. There were about 200 squares across Italy that had public initiatives and banquets for the collection of signatures and meetings with citizens to ask the Italian Parliament to discuss and approve a law for “income dignity” for the more than 10 million poor citizens in Italy.
Two bills are currently being discussed in the Labour Commission of the Senate that are part of the national platform offered by “Libera against the Mafia.” Indeed, the proposal of a “dignity income” would also counter the forms of corruption, racketeering and extortion that the mafia now present in many places of the peninsula. The mobilization in 200 Italian squares that was also promoted by BIN Italia (Basic Income Network) saw the participation of many other organizations within these Italian cities. Additionally, many municipalities have joined the campaign supporting the need for a measure such as a guaranteed minimum income in the country.
Source: BIN Informa, “200 piazze in Italia il 6 giugno hanno raccolte firme per un reddito di dignita“[200 squares in Italy on June 6 have collected signatures for an income of dignity]. BIN Italia, June 6, 2015.
by Sandro Gobetti | Nov 11, 2015 | News
Will be held on Monday November 23, 2015, at Aurum in Largo Gardone Riviera, Pescara from 10:00 to 13:00 AM, an information and training session entitled “Citizen’s Income: a proposal for Italy and Europe” promoted by the Regional Federation of AICCRE Abruzzo and the Department for Equal Opportunities of the City of Pescara. The day’s program will include: Damiana Guarascio (General Secretary AICCRE Abruzzo); Marco Alessandrini (Mayor of Pescara); Luciano D’Alfonso (President of the Abruzzo Region); Giuseppe Dipangrazio (President of Abruzzo Regional Council); Luciano Lapenna (President ANCI Abruzzo); Giuseppe Bronzini (Supreme Court Judge and founding member of BIN Italy); Fausta Guarriello (Professor of Labour Law University “G. D ‘Annunzio” Pescara); Conclusion Michele Picciano (National President AICCRE). Moderated by Sandra Santavenere (Councillor for Equal Opportunities City of Pescara).
For more information (in Italian) click here
by Sandro Gobetti | Nov 10, 2015 | News
A debate will be held Saturday, November 14, 2015 in Piazza XXV Aprile in Cervia, at 9:45 am entitled “The right for a Guaranteed minimum income.” At the debate will be: Roberta Fantozzi (National Secretariat PRC); Riberto Neri (Provincial Secretary UIL); Hon. Giovanni Paglia (Parliamentary SEL); Luca Santini (President BIN Italy); Raffaella Sensoli (Regional Councillor M5S). The coordinator of the initiative is Antonio Antonelli. The event is organized by M5S, SEL, PRC parties.
For more information click here (in italian)
Event details:
Italy: CERVIA, Piazza XXV Aprile, Debate entitled: “The right for a Guaranteed minimum income.”November 14, 2015 at 9:45 AM.
by Vito Laterza | Oct 14, 2015 | News
Debora Serracchiani, President of Friuli-Venezia Giulia
The center-left government of the Italian region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia is about to roll out a minimum income experiment – the actual wording used in the legislation is “measures of active inclusion and income support”. It was approved in June by the regional parliament. The cabinet finalized the implementation guidelines at the end of September.
This is far from a universal basic income, but institutes a basic floor for all families below a certain income, regardless of family members’ current or previous occupational status. Families that earn 6000 euros per year or less, and have been residing in the region for at least twenty-four months, will receive a monthly sum between 70 and 550 euros for twelve months in the first instance. The monthly payment is determined by existing family income – there are six income bands – and the number of dependent children.
They can apply for a second period of twelve months, after a two months break. The award is conditional on signing an “inclusion pact”, which is a plan beneficiaries agree with social services to improve their financial situation. It can include training courses, further education and other labor market integration activities.
Local newspaper Il Piccolo reports that the scheme roll-out is expected to start in November this year. It is estimated that there are up to 10,000 beneficiaries eligible for this measure. Italian newspapers do not clarify whether this figure refers to the total number of individuals in the receiving families, or the number of applicants. Either way, it is clear that only the very poor will be covered.
Italy, like Greece and unlike most European countries, does not have a universal unemployment subsidy or a national guaranteed minimum income (GMI). A GMI scheme was piloted at the national level in the late 1990s, but discontinued in the early 2000s. Some of Italy’s 20 regions experimented with similar measures throughout the 2000s, but none of them went beyond the experimental phase. Friuli-Venezia Giulia center-left government had already instituted a five-year experiment in 2006, but the scheme was interrupted prematurely by a center-right government in 2008.
Friuli’s reintroduction of a minimum income is not an isolated case. Another region, Basilicata, adopted similar measures in recent months, and others, like Piedmont and Lombardy, are expected to do so in the near future.
Friuli’s law was promoted by the regional president Debora Serracchiani and her cabinet, and approved with votes from across the political spectrum. The center-left Democrats, who lead the regional coalition government, and their regional allies of Left, Ecology and Freedom, supported the measure, with the favorable vote of the opposition party 5 Star Movement – a populist formation with increasingly far right views about migration and borders.
The 5 Star Movement is the main opposition party in the national parliament, and has been campaigning for a “citizenship income” (a form of GMI) at the national level for some time now. In recent months, they have intensified their campaign. Popular support for a national GMI is growing, fuelled by increasing poverty and social discontent caused by the combined effect of austerity and lack of economic growth.
Matteo Renzi, Italy’s Prime Minister
Three legislative proposals to this effect have been deposited in the national parliament, but none of them has reached the stage of a parliamentary vote. The 5 Star Movement proposal is the most far-reaching of them and calls for a GMI of up to 780 euros per month. Matteo Renzi, Prime Minister and leader of the Democrats, has rejected this proposal, but promised to include in the next budget more modest measures to mitigate poverty.
If you want to find out more, here is a list of relevant sources:
Marco Ballico, “Sei ‘scaglioni’ per l’assegno antipovertà [Six bands for the antipoverty payment],” Il Piccolo, September 22, 2015.
Roberto Giovannini, “In Friuli sussidio per i poveri, i grillini votano con il Pd [Subsidy for the poor in Friuli, 5 Star Movement votes with Pd],” La Stampa, July 2, 2015.
Friuli-Venezia Giulia, “Legge regionale 10 luglio 2015, n.15 [Regional law July 10, 2015, n.15]”.
“Renzi: no al reddito di cittadinanza, per combattere la povertà serve il lavoro [Renzi: no to citizenship income, we need jobs to fight poverty],” September 30, 2015.
Josh Martin, “ITALY: Conflict over report of a basic income experiment in Lombardy”, Basic Income News, May 18, 2015.
For a brief history of GMI experiments in Italy, see Varvara Lalioti’s academic article “The curious case of the Guaranteed Minimum Income (GMI): highlighting Greek ‘exceptionalism’ in a southern European context”, forthcoming in the European Journal of Social Policy. An earlier version is available here.
by Tyler Prochazka | Sep 13, 2015 | News
On the 26th and 27th of June 2015, in Badia Fiesolana, Florenza, Italy, a conference in Italy attempted to answer one complex question: what is the future of Basic Income (BI) research? The conference at the European University Institute approached this question through a variety of lenses, from philosophy to economics, and attempted to intersect these various disciplines.
Max Weber Multidisciplinary Conference @ Florenza, Italy
“Moving away from purely normative justifications, there has been an increasing attention to topics at the intersection of philosophy and economics within the literature”, the event topic summary reported.
The event was organized by Max Weber Fellows Robert Lepenies and Juliana Bidadanure, as well as other professors interested in the BI concept, according to the conference schedule.
Other covered topics included the political feasibility of BI and the implications of BI activism on research about the subject.
The conference included papers that were selected from a competitive call for abstracts. In total, there were 22 papers discussed. An abstract of an accepted paper entitled “Basic Income, Direct Cash and Normative change” argues that the BI model empowers the poor.
“Several studies and experiments show that DC is a cost-efficient way of ensuring long-term improvement of living standards, as the monetary support is invested in housing, health, education, improves employment prospects, and supports positive and peaceful political transformation. The novelty of DC lies however also in the way it treats aid recipients: as autonomous, not passive beneficiaries”, that abstract resumed.
On the second day of the conference Philippe Van Parijs and Yannick Vanderborght’s new book on basic income was discussed.
European University Institute Florence, “The Future of Basic Income Research“, Max Weber Multidisciplinary Conference, June 26-27, 2015.
