Welfare

The Green European Journal asked experts, activists, and politicians from around Europe about the politics of basic income where they are.

Basic income offers progressives a positive vision for the future shaped around security, autonomy and social justice.

Flexibility: one person’s freedom and another’s insecurity. Dutch GroenLinks MEP Bas Eickhout and recruitment expert Robby Vanuxem discuss contemporary changes and challenges in the world of work.

In spite of the similarities between their constitutional and social welfare institutions, Brazil receives little consideration from the EU as a mediator between the global North and the global South. It is time for a re-think.

Green parties face major challenges ahead. How can we finance welfare in the future? How do we strengthen the third sector and the public sector in many countries? How do we find ways to regulate the private welfare market? How much of the wealth can be managed by non-profit organisations or volunteer work (the church or the family?) These are among the questions that are discussed in a new report by GEF and its partners.

The New Deal for Europe is a European Citizens’ Initiative supported by a coalition of social and political groups. It emerged as a response to the economic crisis, and seeks to build a solid employment and sustainable development plan for Europe by relying on federalist ideas and mechanisms to enhance solidarity in the EU.

An interview with Ralf Fücks, Director of the Heinrich Böll Foundation.

Success or failure? That is the question supporters in Germany of an Unconditional Basic Income have to ask themselves following the end, on 14 January, of the European Citizens’ Initiative, which for technical reasons did not quite run for a full year.

The idea of degrowth has always been a strain Green thought, but what exactly would degrowth mean for our economy, society and relationship with the planet? Does degrowth provide the answer to the social and ecological crisis?

The European Union has always been a project that marries differing perspectives – the pursuit of peace and borders open to people, goods and ideas. However the steady evolution of this project has been disrupted by the economic crisis, which has led to a rise of xenophobic, nationalist thoughts. For Jean Lambert, Europe must now confront the idea of ‘us’ versus ‘them’ that exists and work towards creating a truly hospitable EU.