Dear signatories and followers of the European Citizens’ Initiative “Start Unconditional Basic Incomes (UBI) throughout the EU”
1. ECI Basic Income – Results and Outlook
First of all, a big thank you to all those who have actively organized, supported and disseminated the ECI Basic Income. Corona, the political climate (Ukraine war), the largely unknown nature of the ECI participation instrument and zero financial support for our work by the EU institutions have not made it easy.
Nevertheless, over 296 thousand have signed the ECI basic income. In terms of minimum quorum, Spain ranks 1st, followed by Slovenia and Italy. Germany has reached fourth place in the EU with over 70 thousand signatures, exceeding the minimum quorum with 104 percent. By way of comparison, the ECI basic incomes in 2013/14 signed only 275 thousand in the EU-27 (excluding the UK), and in Germany only about 40 thousand (55 percent of the minimum quorum at that time). Spain, Italy, Greece and Latvia have made strong gains this time. Here are the ECI results of 2013/14, h ere are the ECI results of 2013/14, the results of the current ECI here or here.
However, we have not reached the target of one million signatures. In some EU countries, EU scepticism has grown or many cannot (yet) do anything with the EU. An example: The referendum on basic income in Austria received around 169 thousand signatures. However, the ECI basic income was signed by fewer than four thousand citizens in Austria. Other countries, such as France, Belgium or Bulgaria, have remained far below their previous level in this year’s ECI.
However, in addition to increasing the total number of signatures and the upswing in some countries, we have achieved great success on the online platform for the future of Europe: “One of the most frequently suggestedmechanisms to make Europe more inclusive and socially fair is the guaranteeing an Unconditional Basic Income throughout the EU“(Final Report Platform, page 44)
Outlook: We will use both increased support for the ECI and success on the online platform to become more actively involved in EU policy. The networking of basic income actors at European level, which has been strengthened with the ECI Basic Income, is also encouraging. In order to continue the proven solidarity cooperation at European level, an “Unconditional Basic Income (UBI) – European Initiative” has been founded.
2. Stay informed
If you would like to continue to be informed about the activities on basic income at European level, you can subscribe to newsletters of basic income organisations in your country. Or follow us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/ECIUBI. You can also subscribe to the Daily Basic Income Newspaper
3. UBI4ALL also continues!
We continue!
And keep collecting for our basic income raffle at UBI4ALL so that people can experience it for real. Most recently, Balázs, a young man from Hungary, won a European Basic Income of 800 Euro per month. Before that, Lucie from France and Thomas from Ireland. Who will be next?
Our ingenious plan: if several million people join UBI4ALL, it will be easy to make our next citizens’ initiative for basic income in Europe a success. So, tell all your friends about UBI4ALL ! By the way, people from all countries in Europe can now register for the raffle – no longer just from EU countries.
Dear readers, stay healthy and committed to basic income!
Klaus Sambor, Austria
Ronald Blaschke, Germany