In the position, which was developed as part of a Call for Evidence by the European Commission on a possible new EU initiatve to strengthen minimum income schemes in the Member States, CESI welcomes the initiative of the EU to increase the adequacy and effectiveness of national minimum income schemes as an integral part of a social dimension of the EU’s Single Market – and makes a case for binding targets for Member States to achieve.

In the position, CESI highlights that an EU initiative on minimum income schemes should above all:

1. ensure that gaps in the coverage of benefits as a result of inappropriate eligibility criteria as well as of gaps in the take up of benefits due to unawareness of eligibility are reduced to a minimum. The former will require clear stipulations of rules, principles and possible exemptions in the EU initiative for the Member States, as well as measures to prevent fraud and abuse. Concerning the latter, more support and resources will be required for public authorities, and public employment services in particular, to inform concerned citizens.
2. help ensure that minimum income schemes – which are set, as in most Member States, at below the national poverty thresholds – are increased to a level that prevents people from falling into poverty. In well-justified cases, it should be allowed to integrate minimum income schemes with other social benefits or income support, but the EU initiative should make clear that the final result should never be that persons fall into poverty. Regularly and in a transparent manner, the rules, coverage and adequacy of minimum income schemes should be reviewed and updated against price indexes to ensure that people fall do not fall into poverty over time. In doing so, naturally, minimum incomes should remain below full-time employment earning equivalents under national minimum wages, which must be high enough to enjoy living standards well beyond poverty thresholds. Incentives to work must remain for all those that can, while a poverty-free standard of living for all those that cannot must be guaranteed.
3. help all people that can work make the step into labour markets and higher living standards, the EU initiative should promote more tailor-made and effective activation measures. Beyond simplified administrative procedure and better interconnectedness and internal coordination within and among local authorities, public employment services and social security institutions, this will require investments in their resources and equipment as well as in their personnel and further training. When improved services bring people back into work, this is a forward-looking investment that quickly pays off in economic and social terms.

In the position, CESI states its disagreement with the envisaged policy instrument suggested in the European Commission’s Call for Evidence to realise the EU initiative – a Council Recommendation – to strengthen minimum income schemes in the Member States along the above considerations. Without minimum standards based on a binding legislative act (e.g. a directive), a cross-cutting implementation and enforcement of EU provisions on minimum income schemes in the Member States is unlikely. CESI proposes as legal base article TFEU 153(1)h on the integration of persons excluded from the labour market, in combination with article TFEU 153(2)b which provides for the adoption of a directive under the ordinary legislative procedure with qualified majority voting in the Council. This could combine legally binding objectives for Member States with their ability to set their own ways of how to achieve them.

The full position is available here.