During a European Parliament debate on Wednesday 3 October that was requested by Laura Agea (EFDD, Italy) on minimum income in Europe, MEPs were opposed on how to fight poverty, with some supporting European minimum income and others supporting a minimum wage.
The debate seemed to focus on different concepts and the split was shown as rather ideological than geographical (with certain exceptions), as MEPs on the left of the political spectrum were in favour of unconditional minimum income whilst those in the centre or on the right preferred to talk of a minimum wage.
For the first group, minimum income is an effective way to fight against pockets of poverty and it responds to the principles set out in the European pillar of social rights that was adopted in November 2017. For the second group, a minimum wage is a "trap" if it is not associated with a policy of insertion or with effort. "I often hear about inactivity income, but I would like to hear about activity income", Geoffroy Didier (EPP, France) said, for example.
Didier proposed making the structural funds and investment conditional on a healthy national wage policy, forcing certain member states not to organise social dumping by setting a minimum wage that is too low. Other MEPs, like Patrick Le Hyaric (GUE/NGL, France) asked the Commission to bring forward a framework directive to guarantee a decent job.
Some MEPs, like Lampros Fountoulis (non-attached, Greece), feared that minimum income might bring about a "call for air" for migrants.
The issue of minimum income is particularly topical given the stated intention of Luigi di Maio, Italy's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economic Development, Labour and Social Policies, to introduce citizens' basic income. The issue of minimum income was also the subject of an own initiative report by Tamás Meszerics MEP (Greens/EFA, Hungary) back in 2016 (see EUROPE 11533). (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)