When the European project goes on with a single currency we believe there will be an increasing need to develop new mechanisms for distributing wealth between nations and to regions and individuals. We believe, in short, that it is necessary to introduce some form of a partial basic income if the absolute poverty - and its associated problems - is to be eradicated. This reform could be financed from the European budget, from national budgets, from a so-called Tobin Tax, from a battery of eco-taxes throughout Europe and from reduced bureaucracy. The funding may also come from other sources.

The point is not that we want to have basic income instead of a politics of full employment, but that we think that a partial basic income is what would best serve the less fortunate citizens of our societies. The point is also that we think that the need for some form of basic income will become the more obvious as the integration goes on. That is, if we think it is important to eradicate the absolute poverty. Last but not least we think it is necessary to fill the European citizenship with something real if it is going to mean anything at all for the ordinary citizen. So long as we don't have a real economic content in the European citizenship we do not think that the necessary support for a further integration can be taken for granted. We therefore demand from our politicians, especially those who believe in a further integration and a common currency, to take this demand serious. 

Sincerely, the Undersigned at

http://www.petitiononline.com/qd4e/petition.html