Today the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) “Start Unconditional Basic Incomes throughout the EU” has been launched.
The initiative has to get the support of at least 1 million citizens within one year from the 27 member states of the EU. It also has to get a certain minimum number of signatures in at least 7 member states of the EU. You can find out the details how an ECI works here.
The aim of the ECI is to establish the introduction of unconditional basic incomes throughout the EU which ensure every person’s material existence and opportunity to participate in society as part of its economic policy. The objectives of the ECI are as follows:
‘We request the EU Commission to make a proposal for unconditional basic incomes throughout the EU, which reduce regional disparities in order to strengthen the economic, social and territorial cohesion in the EU.
This shall realize the aim of the joint statement by the European Council, the European Parliament and the European Commission, stated in 2017, that “the EU and its member states will also support efficient, sustainable and equitable social protection systems to guarantee basic income” in order to combat inequality.’
You can find out about all the details of the initiative here.
Sam Gregory in his article ‘Campaigners call for a Universal Basic Income across Europe’ for nowthen magazine explains the wider political and historical context of this intiative.
The European Citizens’ Initiative for Unconditional Basic Income (ECI-UBI) is coordinating the efforts to collect the signatures from all countries of the EU. You can find a short video (3 mins) explaining the initiative here. In case you are a citizen of one of the 27 EU member states, you can sign the ‘Start Unconditional Basic Incomes (UBI) throughout the EU’ initiative here.
The European Commission has confirmed that “the support to an ECI initiative is open to all EU citizens, regardless of where they reside. When they want to sign-up online, they have to choose the country of their nationality and their statements will be counted for that country.“