About the Event:

After earlier webinars introducing the general concept of UBI, the European UBI, and the achievements of the GEF in promoting this debate, we discussed UBI pilots in Europe and elsewhere.

This time, in partnership with the Polish Basic Income Network, we will present UBI and similar concepts that are discussed in Poland and the prospects for implementing them in the country.

Context:

The Green European Foundation has been working and researching the topic of UBI for a few years as part of a transnational project involving many countries. This year, the project is entitled “CHANGE OF MINDSET. Civil society dialogue around UBI, social justice and climate impact”. The Polish Green Foundation “Strefa Zieleni” joined the project, recognising that it was time to start a public debate on this in Poland as well – not only on UBI itself but as part of a broader conversation: what social security system is best adapted to the needs and expectations of Polish society in times of great instability and turmoil?

On May 26^th, the webinar “With UBI we would be less afraid of coronavirus” opened a series of four online meetings on this topic, organised by GEF with the support of Strefa Zieleni. Participants of the first webinar chose the topics of subsequent meetings, the third of which is an overview of the Polish perspectives on UBI and prospects for implementation.

Speakers:

• Dr hab. Ryszard Szarfenberg – Political scientist, professor at the Faculty of Political Science and International Studies at the University of Warsaw. Leader of the Polish Basic Income Network and active populariser of the concept of Unconditional Basic Income in Poland.
• Dr Jacek Warda – Political scientist, an expert in public management in local governments and author of the first Polish scientific article on the UBI: “Potential consequences of the implementation of a negative tax for the state’s social system” (2008). Member of the Polish Basic Income Network.
• Dr Maciej Szlinder – doctor of humanities in the field of philosophy, sociologist, economist. Member of the Polish Basic Income Network, Basic Income Earth Network, Red Renta Básica. Author of the book “Unconditional basic income. A revolutionary reform of the society of the 21st century” (PWN, 2018).

Moderation and comments by Ewa Sufin-Jacquemart and Wojciech Kłosowski.

We regret that the guest speakers of this particular webinar are all men, as unfortunately, the Polish Basic Income Network is an entirely male initiative. GEF and Strefa Zieleni are committed to hosting diverse and balanced events and have ensured that the next webinar in this series will be dominated by excellent female speakers.

Programme:

The webinar will start at 18:00 CEST with a short video produced by the UBI transnational project partners.

Practicalities:

This webinar will take place in Polish for a Polish audience. It is open to anyone, but please register using this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ecc1VTOBS0WdsayiiuGCag

We will use the Zoom video conferencing platform. It is recommended to join the webinar via a PC. You do not need to install additional software. However, for the best user experience and full participation features, we recommend installing the Zoom Desktop App, which is free.

About the Event:

Reflections and specific experiments have been ongoing for many years in the search for systemic solutions to provide people with the opportunity to meet basic life needs in times of instability, exacerbated amid junk contracts, rapid climate change and structural inequalities. Unconditional basic income is one such form, tested by certain public authorities, but also by non-governmental and research organisations, both in so-called developed countries as well as some countries of the global South.

This webinar focuses on the experiences of basic income in several countries – their goals and results, but also the political context of each case. A more general academic comparative view will complete a political and activist approach. We invited a European university researcher examining UBI experiments, their political and social context and overtones, but also a Kenyan Green politician from a so-called developing country where innovative social policies have been pursued both by the authorities and through the experiments of social aid and research organisations.

Context:

The Green European Foundation has been working and conducting research on the topic of UBI for a few years as part of a transnational project involving many countries. This year, the project is entitled “CHANGE OF MINDSET. Civil society dialogue around UBI, social justice and climate impact”.

On May 26^th, the webinar “With UBI we would be less afraid of coronavirus” opened a series of four meetings on this topic, organised by GEF and with the support of Strefa Zieleni. Participants of the first webinar chose the topics of subsequent meetings, the first of which is an exploration of unconditional basic income experiments and derived social policy solutions in various countries.

Speakers:

• Jurgen De Wispelaere – policy fellow at the Institute for Policy Research (University of Bath) and a visiting scholar at the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga.
• Martin Ogindo – Party leader of the Green Congress of Kenya.
• Moderation and comments by Ewa Sufin-Jacquemart and Wojciech Kłosowski.

Practicalities:

This is an open event accessible to an international audience. English-Polish translation will be provided.

We will use the Zoom video conferencing platform. It is recommended to join the webinar via a PC. You don’t need to install additional software. However, for the best user experience and full participation features, we recommend to install the Zoom Desktop App, which is free.

Please register and join the webinar via this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_rM7YcboBRNmUC3brggoaAg

About the Event:

We would like to invite you to the first edition of a series of four webinars on the topic of universal basic income (UBI). This event series is organised for by the Green European Foundation, with the support of Fundacja Strefa Zieleni, and a grassroots initiative of Polish activists: “Community of Ideas”. It consists of two Polish and two international webinars.

One feature of our current unsustainable system is the massive, and rapidly growing, increase in inequalities – emphasizing feelings of insecurity and material instability for a growing share of the population, and especially among young people.

Even in the “old Europe” countries, with some of the most caring welfare state systems in the world, the growing trends of precarious work and increasing workforce poverty have grown too much to be thought of as marginal. The overwhelming feeling of social injustice often leads either to social unrest, like with the yellow vest movement in France, or to the development of populism and political authoritarianism, which we can observe, among other places, in Poland.

The past few years have seen research and some practical experiments in search of systemic answers to enable people to meet their basic needs – in times of structural inequalities and instability, due in part to this spread of precarious work and the destructive consequences of rapid climate change. The universal basic income (UBI) is one of the solutions on the table.

In this webinar, we take a look at the existing work GEF has done on UBI, where these ideas come from, and what they are based on. We will also discuss why this is a “green” concept, consistent with “green policy,” have an overview of the UBI reflections and experiments in different countries, and address its critics. Finally, we touch on GEF’s continuing research plans on the topic and go over the present efforts to introduce a pan-European basic income and other social security measures at the EU level.

Context:

The Green European Foundation has been working and conducting research on the topic of UBI for a few years as part of a transnational project involving many countries. This year, the project is entitled “CHANGE OF MINDSET. Civil society dialogue around UBI, social justice and climate impact”. The Polish Green Foundation “Strefa Zieleni” joined the project, recognizing that it was time to start a public debate on this in Poland as well – not only on UBI itself, but as part of a broader conversation: what social security system is best adapted to the needs and expectations of Polish society in times of great instability and turmoil?

Speakers:

François Denuit is an adviser to the Co-President of the Greens/EFA group in the EP Philippe Lamberts and scientific collaborator at the Université libre de Bruxelles. He wrote his PhD dissertation on the idea of a pan-European unconditional basic income.

Susanne Rieger is a Co-President of the GEF Board of Directors and a board member of the Catalan Green foundation, Fundació Nous Horitzons (FNH). Susanne has been working on topics such as political education, capacity building, as well as developing political and public discussions and communication structures on the European level for the past twenty years.

Wojciech Kłosowski is an expert, researcher, activist, author, lecturer and practitioner of social issues, local governance and social policy of cities. Wojciech is a founding member of the Zieloni 2004 party (today: Partia Zieloni).

Moderator : 

Ewa Sufin-Jacquemart is the director of the Fundacja Strefa Zieleni, a member of the GEF Board of Directors and coordinator of the Green Center of the Congress of Women.

Programme:

18:00 – 19:30

• Welcome
• Presentation by Susanne Rieger
• Presentation by François Denuit
• Summary and comments (in Polish) by Wojciech Kłosowski
• Discussion

Practicalities:

This is an open event, aimed at an international audience. English-Polish translation will be provided.

Please use the following link to join the webinar (joining the webinar is preceded by registration).

When joining the webinar, you will have to complete a short registration form – so make sure to tune in early!

If you would like to read more about some of GEF’s existing work on UBI, please refer to the following publications:

• Basic Social Security 2030 (published in January 2020)
• European Green Perspectives on Basic Income (published in February 2019)

This project is organised by the Green European Foundation with the support of Fundacja Strefa Zieleni and with the financial support of the European Parliament to the Green European Foundation.