23/01/2018 Session
PACE considers that introducing a citizenship, or basic income, defined as “universal, individual, unconditional and sufficient to ensure living in dignity", would relieve poverty and guarantee equal opportunity for all, more effectively than the existing patchwork of social benefits, services and programs.
The resolution adopted today, on the basis of the report by Nunzia Catalfo (Italy, NR), stresses that this citizenship income would supplement earnings for those engaged in non-standard forms of work and job-sharing, those who are underemployed or those in unpaid work.
However, given the practical difficulties of such a radical change in social policy, the Assembly believes that an in-depth debate is necessary in each country to determine the modalities for this basic income, and the ways of funding it. The adopted text proposes a series of recommendations to the member States, inviting them, in particular, to study the past and present initiatives of field-testing different formulas of basic income at local, regional or national level.