In some regions of Spain and Greece, youth unemployment is now above 70%. The latest figures released by eurostat also indicate that long-term unemployment is currently at record levels in the EU, with nearly half of all unemployed people having been out of work for more than a year. And there is also a clear disparity between the North and the South; the average EU unemployment rate is 10.8%, but the jobless rate is half the average (5.4%) in 23 of Germany’s 39 regions and twice the average (21.6%) in 13 out of 19 regions in Spain.

Many of you have sent in suggestions for ways to bring down unemployment in the European Union, but today we’re going to look at an idea we haven’t discussed yet. We had a comment sent in from Bruno who put forward a radical solution:

Why not just give an Unconditional Basic Income (UBI) to everyone so each individual can develop themselves and create their own job? We are too dependent on big business to create jobs for us. Let’s change that and give a chance to small business to flourish. Many Nobel prize winners speak about this economic alternative. The UBI aims at minimizing economic disparity and simultaneously eradicating poverty. We need some change because, in our current economic system, the rich are getting richer and most of us are getting poorer.

An Unconditional Basic Income has been proposed under different names (and with several variations) since at least the 18th century. Generally speaking, however, it is a recurring cash transfer granted to all citizens without any conditions attached. Typically, this transfer would be enough for a person to survive (and “live with dignity”) but not enough to disincentivise economic activity.

Earlier this month, the European Economic and Social Committee – a consultative body of the EU composed of employers’ organisations, trade unions and civil society – hosted a conference discussing the possibility of introducing a UBI at the EU level. The conference was arranged by the organisers of a recent European Citizens’ Initiative calling for just such a European Basic Income. Although the Citizens’ Initiative failed to gather the required 1 million signatures, it did receive the backing of 285,000 Europeans and the organisers now hope to petition the European Parliament.

To read some in-depth analysis of the European Union’s social policy options once a new European Commission and European Parliament are in place, be sure to check out the recent report published by our sister think-tank, Friends of Europe.

We recently spoke to Katarína Neveďalová, a Slovakian MEP who sits with the Social Democrats in the European Parliament. What did she think of Bruno’s suggestion?

I think this idea is very good and I personally support it, but it is the role of the individual Member States to decide whether they will support it or not, because it has to be agreed by every single Member State before it can be implemented Europe-wide. One problem is that there is an enormous variety in income in the European Union, because wage levels are very different, so it would be difficult to set one basic income that is Europe-wide. Nevertheless, I believe in a few years we can develop something like a UBI for everybody, which would help to support people and fight poverty. But we have to find the sources of funding for this, and the sources of funding are in the Member States, so it’s their decision to take.

Out of the 34 MEPs who publicly backed the ECI for a Basic Income, 22 were Greens (including their two joint-candidates for European Commission President, José Bové and Ska Keller). However, a Universal Basic Income is not mentioned anywhere in the Greens’ campaign manifesto (nor in any manifesto published ahead of the European elections next month).

We spoke to Reinhard Bütikofer, a German MEP and co-spokesperson for the Greens in the European Parliament, and asked him what he thought:

Well, I’m really not sure how many Green MEPs support a Guaranteed Basic Income. I do know that my own national party, the German Green Party, has had extensive discussions for quite some time on this issue. And, ultimately, when we voted in our party conference we decided to reject the idea. In theory, the Guaranteed Basic Income may sound very attractive, but when you look into the specific models that have been offered, there’s always a dark side to it. And some of the proposals I have seen would not end up generating more social justice – quite the opposite. So, I think some of the ideas might be integrated into a broader system of social justice and social responsibility, but I’m not convinced that a Guaranteed Basic Income is the key to promoting social justice and, as Bruno seems to believe, also strong industrial development. I think we should always meet promises to implement such fundamental overhauls of the welfare state with a lot of suspicion, because such a sweeping change would have so wide-ranging an impact that it is really very hard to evaluate the effects beforehand. In such a case, it’s always best to employ the maximum possible caution.

Would a guaranteed cash transfer paid to all European citizens help fight poverty and promote stronger economic growth? Or would it just encourage people to stop working and decrease social mobility? Let us know your thoughts and comments in the form below, and we’ll take them to policy-makers and experts for their reactions!



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