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Basic Income

Dec 05 2019
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Basic Income and the EU level (Brussels)

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About the Event

Within the last three years, the Green European Foundation has organised closed and open events on the topic of Universal Basic Income all over Europe and has produced several publications.

The transnational project is concluded with a closed roundtable meeting of representatives of our expert group from across Europe as well as stakeholders from the European Green Party, the Young Greens and the Green Group in the European Parliament.

The aim is to discuss how the outcomes of the project activities in the past years can be translated in the political process and what concrete recommendations for the political level could be to make concrete forward to make Universal Basic Income a European reality.

This roundtable is on invitation only. 

Oct 14 2019
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Making Basic Income a European Reality (Tampere)

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About the Event

The long lived dream of a basic income has gained relevance in Europe in the last few years. Changing working life and an uncertain economy has sparked the need for social security reforms in many countries. The Finnish basic income study has received world wide coverage. The goals have long been established but how do countries move forward to make it actually happen? Is a European BI possible? Should we approach BI incrementally?

In this seminar, taking place at the 30th European Green Party Council, guest speakers will discuss the status of basic income developments in different countries and outline paths to make the utopia a reality. Both national and Europe-wide points of view will be discussed. The seminar is a chance to spread ideas among the participants and help implement change across Europe.

Speakers

Via video: Jamie Cooke, The RSA Scotland

Pathways to a Basic Income in Scotland and the UK

Jane Millar, University of Bath, UK
Universal Credit: designing and implementing the UK’s new working-age benefit and how this differs from Basic Income

Kim Evangelista, Belgian Green party (Ecolo)
A Basic Income for the young: Inventing tomorrow’s solidarities

Lukas Korpelainen, Visio – Finnish Green Think Tank
A hybrid model for basic social security and the steps for the next 10 years in Finland

 

Speaker Biographies

Jane Millar OBE, FBA, FAcSS is Professor of Social Policy in the Institute for Policy Research at the University of Bath, UK. Her research interests include the design, implementation and impact of social policy and comparative research on family policy, social security and employment policy, with particular reference to gender and changing family patterns. Her current research examines the impact of Universal Credit on couples, focusing on labour market decisions and family budgeting.

Kim Evangelista is a policy advisor for the Belgian Green party (Ecolo). He is in charge of economic, social and fiscal policies. He worked on a concrete Basic Income proposition included in the political program of the party for the May 2019 election. He studied economics and political sciences, and was later a researcher in applied economics. He worked in both the private and public sector

Lukas Korpelainen is a research coordinator at the Finnish Green think tank Visio. Earlier this year he wrote a report on improving the basic social security system in Finland. The work includes a new model for a basic income combined with means-tested benefits and a realistic first step with economic simulations. He has also helped the Finnish Green party develop its social security policies.

Jamie Cooke is the head of The RSA Scotland and leads on the development of the RSA’s activity in Scotland, through innovative partnerships, projects and programmes. He is also a leading advocate, writer, and speaker on the subject of basic income. He sits on the Executive Committee of Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN) and on the Board of Citizens’ Basic Income Network Scotland (CBINS).

This seminar is organised by the Green European Foundation with the support of the Finnish Green think tank Visio.

Oct 09 2019
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Basic Income as a Tool Towards the Ecological Transition (Córdoba)

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About the Event

In a society threatened by different and converging environmental and social crises, Universal Basic Income has more and more support as an instrument to mitigate the great social inequalities that the economic system, based on the infinite economic growth, cannot solve.

On the contrary, neoliberal capitalism is not only opening a widening gap between rich and poor countries, but it is accentuating it within the countries themselves, creating large pockets of poverty. Much has been written about UBI in relation to work, freedom, inequality, gender, but the ecological dimension has hardly been taken into account. For this reason we want to focus on the UBI-socio-environmental sustainability relationship.

Would the implementation of a basic income have positive effects on the protection of the Planet? What would be its relationship with economic growth / degrowth? How would it affect consumption patterns? How should it be financed so that it can be an effective instrument for ecological transition? In this session we will try to answer these and many other questions and contribute to the debate on this forgotten but necessary and urgent aspect of Basic Income.

This event is part of the Basic Income – European Public Debate project and will take place at the Univerde: Capitalism in Front of the Mirror – the Socio-Environmental Response to a Predatory System,

Speakers

– Lucía Baratech – economist specialized in Ecological and Social Economics from the Vienna University of Economics. Member of the Basic Income Network. Consultant for Public Administration

– Jorge Pinto – research associate at the Centre for Ethics, Politics and Society University of Minho, Portugal and co-founder of the Portuguese party LIVRE

– Julen Bollain – economist and researcher, member of the Basic Income Network and of the BIEN (Basic Income Earth Network). Member of the Basque Parliament by Elkarrekin Podemos

 

Mar 04 2019
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Basic Income & Social Rights: Local and European Perspectives (Bologna)

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Event Background

This event is part of the Green European Foundation transnational project Basic Income – European Public Debate.

Basic income has emerged in recent years as a potential tool to reverse the current issues facing society, such as lack of affordable housing and access to education and healthcare, income inequality and disparity between generations.

As basic income gradually permeates into mainstream debates and factors like technological advancements change our understanding of work, it is important to explore how such a scheme could be implemented, and the impact it would have on social rights at the local and European level.

About the Event

This workshop will be held as a side event of the Federation of Young European Greens (FYEG) four day educational event on social rights, and organised with the support of FYEG.

It will bring together young people locally and from across Europe, with international participants including those from FYEG member organisations, social movements, and trade unions.

Participants will learn via roundtable discussions about basic income, existing pilot projects and the connection with social rights. They will identify the pressing requirements to make such a scheme a reality.

Programme

The workshop will be divided into three parts, with breaks in between:

  • The presentation of the GEF publication European Green Perspectives on Basic Income will provide an introduction to the basic income concept and describe successes and limitations of past pilot projects, and discuss the results of research into the impact of basic income schemes on access to housing, education, healthcare and employment.
  • Two fishbowl-style dialogues will serve as a basis to discuss the challenges and solutions to basic income implementation. This part will touch upon the need for certain infrastructure to be in place and the challenges associated with competing views of basic income.
  • Finally, roundtable discussions will delve deeper into the realisation of basic income on the local and European level, with a focus on connecting the two levels together and how basic income could strengthen social rights at these levels.

Speakers

  • Natalie Bennett, GEF Board of Directors
  • Alex Foti, author of the General Theory of the Precariat

Registration

The workshop will be free and open to everyone but subject to registration. You can register by filling in this form. Deadline for registration is Sunday, 21 April 2019, midnight CET.

Language

The event will be held in English but whispered translation from English into Italian can be provided on the spot.

For further updates, check out the Facebook event.

Jan 31 2019
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Basic Income – European Public Debate

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Project Background

This project was kicked off in 2017 with a series of events across Europe exploring Universal Basic Income (UBI), bringing together various partner foundations and UBI experts, from Belgium, Catalonia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Serbia, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

Throughout 2018, partners continued to work extensively on the topic with a follow-up project entitled Basic Income for all European Citizens?, in which an expert group met twice and discussed issues surrounding UBI and produced a publication featuring different perspectives on the debates.

Project Objectives and Activities

The aim of the Basic Income project in 2019 is to disseminate the results of the work done in 2018, via four conferences across Europe. All of the conferences will have the same format and focus on a specific angle of Basic Income, considering pros and cons. Possible proposed topics include youth, women, and social movements.

As social inequalities across Europe are increasing, new forms of social security and solidarity are urgently needed. This project will elevate the debate on Basic Income in Europe and at the same time inform those within the project and beyond on the possibilities, limitations and options of a UBI.

The public events, alongside internal meetings and roundtables throughout the year are set to deliver a concrete set of recommendations that can feed into the discussion on the way forward for the European green movement regarding UBI.

Mar 12 2018
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UBI - Basic Income

Universal Basic Income – a Green Answer to the Future Challenges of the Labour Market? (Antwerp)

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Context

In 2017, the Green European Foundation started, with the support of different national partner foundations a transnational project on basic income with the objective to refine the concepts behind Universal Basic Income and contribute to the Europeanisation of the debate while taking into consideration the huge differences of social security systems across Europe. To this end, we formed a basic income expert group with representatives of Spain, Catalonia, Switzerland, Germany, Serbia, Belgium and Greece. In 2018, the focus of the ‘Basic Income for all EU Citizens?‘ project lies on the financial concepts and on formulating first ideas for a European pilot project on basic income that can deliver comparable results for different European countries.

About the event

During this session, we aim to make the link of those discussions to the broader debate on the future of work and whether basic income can become part of the Green answer to the challenges the labour market is currently facing. At the same time, the session shall serve as an opportunity to exchange on examples and different ideas of Green parties across Europe.

We will organise an interactive session, using the “fish bowl” method: the discussion starts in a semi-circle with one moderator and the three panelists and two empty chairs; after the  first input by the moderator and the three panelists, the audience is invited to fill the empty chairs and take the role of panelists themselves; after the input the chairs have to be left to other participants.

Finally, the workshop will provide an opportunity to present the results of a planned survey we launched on the state of play of the UBI debate within the different Green parties across Europe as well as in the national public discourses.

Moderators

Ville Ylikahri, GEF Board Member, Secretary General in the Green Cultural and Education Centre – Visio in Finland, representative of project expert group for Finland;

 

 

Susanne Rieger, GEF Co-President, responsible for European issues and European relations in the Catalan Green foundation Fundació Nous Horitzons (FNH), Project coordinator of the GEF transnational project on Basic Income.

 

 

 

Speakers

  • Wolfgang Strengmann-Kuhn, Member of Parliament, Germany
  • Julen Bollain, Member of the Basque Parliament, economist & researcher specialised in unconditional basic income, Spain
  • Predrag Momcilovic, Executive Committee Member Federation of Young European Greens, journalist, PhD student on political ecology and degrowth, Serbia
  • Irina Studhalter, Local Councillor Lucerne & political campaigner, Switzerland
  • Natalie Bennett, politician and journalist, former leader of Green Party of England and Wales, United Kingdom

 

Stay tuned for updates

Subscribe to our Facebook event, where you will receive reminders and the latest news on content. Follow us on Facebook or Twitter to learn about our other activities.

 

Jan 03 2018
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Basic Income Greece Project

Constraints Against and Prospects Towards the Implementation of the Basic Income in Greece Within the Crisis

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This report is one of the outcomes of GEF’s transnational project on Basic Income. Within this framework two study visits and multiple discussions on the topic took place.

The demand for securing all members of society against life’s adversities and the negative effects caused from social structures has been an ongoing concern of all social formations. From a historical point of view, this need was expressed in various forms in different times throughout history, ranging from food distribution to the poor in the times of the great empires (i.e. Egyptian Empire) and the charities of the monasteries in Middle Ages, to a universal basic income for all, the major social demand in late capitalism.

In contemporary industrial and post-industrial capitalism, this demand is expressed in two distinct political proposals: The first one focuses on unconditional universal basic income for all members of society irrespective of their financial status (Van Parijs, 1992) and the second one focuses on conditional basic income exclusively for those in unfavourable situation – if not in the most unfavourable situation – with respect to acceptable levels of living.

Read about the Finnish Basic Income Model here.