Local Finnish authorities at Åland, a Swedish speaking archipelago between Finland and Sweden mainland, are considering, within their territory, the creation of a special fiscal zone where basic income-like social experiments could be performed. The Åland Office of the Social Insurance Institution of Finland presently manages conditional basic income benefits for locals, but could be on the brink of taking the next bold step of turning these benefit schemes entirely unconditional.

The recently elected Center Party, which is presently the most represented party in the Finnish Parliament and supporter of Basic Income, is willing to regionally experiment its implementation. That is why Sonja Nordenswan, activist in basic income support group BINK – basinkomst Åland (Åland basic income), is confident about the possibilities of this government actually moving forward with this projet.

In a recent radio program from Åland local radio and TV network RTV, Sonja Nordenswan has also referred to a possible 1000 € per month basic income, which could replace most of present day state funded benefits, such as social security, unemployment benefits and tax credits. These and other aspects were debated at this radio venue, organized by ABF, an Åland based association of workers focused on learning processes, training and culture.

More information at:

Åland Office of the Social Insurance Institution of Finland, 2015

In Finnish:

Tomas Torre Fjell, “Åland as a testing field for Basic Income [Åland testområde för basinkomst]“, RTV Åland radio/tv, May 25, 2015

Liam Upton, “FINLAND: Pro-Basic Income Centre Party wins election“, April 20, 2015

Credit picture CC ehrenbergkommunikation