New opportunities for the basic income movement in Europe

Dear UBI supporters,



There have been significant public breakthroughs at the national level in Finland, Portugal, Hungary, Greece and the United Kingdom (more about this further down). UBI-Europe is also making progress.



While finalizing our legal registration as an international non-profit association under Belgian law, we have also been active in Brussels, meeting with 12 MEPs from various countries and different political groups.



So far we have had positive feedback from these meetings, although it seems clear we need more concrete proposals on how a basic income could work at the EU level, and most of all, we need to lever more support at the grassroots level to raise the pressure for unconditional basic income within the Brussels Bubble.



Turning wasted money into arguments for basic income



The good news is, new opportunities are emerging: the ECB's quantitative easing program and the EU Commission investment plan are both examples of wasted money which could instead have been directly invested into mitigating the effects of austerity on European citizens, and to harness their energies.



Syriza's election to government in Greece may also create a broader shift in the current debate about austerity policies throughout Europe which have seen poverty reach crisis levels in many countries. We will discuss those topics at our next european meeting in Maribor.



This is just the beginning of a long process to make a new debate happen in Europe. Brace yourself and keep spreading the word!



Unconditional regards,

– The coordination team