Whereas:
§ the international economic crisis is worsening and increasingly undermines the labour and income conditions of citizens of all States: each estimate of the consequences of the crisis is worse than the preceding and unemployment rates might reach an average of 10%, with millions of new subjects ejected from the productive process;
§ fulcrum of welfare state protections - as demonstrated by the planning of north European Countries and according to in the indications contained in many European Union documents - turns out to be, now more than ever, the protection of income, intended as a guarantee of a dignified life;
§ the establishment of a full and accomplished European social citizenship necessarily implies the effective guarantee of the "right to existence" for all members of the same community;
§ the maintaining of the European social model is now at stake and in order to defend its ratio and inspiration and to allow it to progress it is necessary that all institutions of European Union take a clear responsibility;
§ it is more than ever necessary - because of the crisis and beyond it - to give a pragmatic sign of pan-European cohesion and solidarity by providing sufficient resources - which only the European Union as a whole can have - to support a basic income that should be granted in all Member States to all resident citizens, as indicated by the Resolution of the European Parliament adopted in October 2008;
We call on the candidates to the European Elections 2009
- and on those who will be elected to the European Parliament - to commit themselves to promote a basic income for all citizens resident in the European continent and to become active in approaching their home Countries to those European Countries that have already taken measures aimed at sustaining the income of all those citizens who don't have adequate resources to live a dignified life. Therefore, we demand that the candidates to the European Elections 2009 take a public stand on this commitment and facilitate greater communication with civil, scientific and academic society in order to succeed in implementing a universal measure of European guaranteed income starting in 2010, which is set to be the European year against poverty and social exclusion.
Gilberto Pagani Thomas Schmidt Vito Monetti
President of AED President of ELDH President of Medel