Davide Ceccanti, An EU Unemployment Benefit Scheme to Relaunch the European Project, IAI Commentaries, 19:26, IAI, April 2019.
A decade since the outbreak of the economic crisis, socio-economic indicators across Europe have begun to improve, but many challenges lay on the path to full recovery. Chief amongst these is the deepening social and political fragmentation in Europe, the rise of centrifugal forces at both the national and regional levels and the need to rekindle citizen trust in the European project at a time of key international transformations and power shifts. Efforts to respond to deteriorating geographic and social inequalities connected to the economic crisis and further aggravated by the advent of globalisation and new technologies are particularly urgent in these domains. As Europe prepares for the upcoming European Parliamentary elections in May, traditional pro-EU parties are in desperate need of new and forceful policies capable of fostering renewed trust and feelings of belonging among citizens. Against this backdrop, the idea of a European Unemployment Benefit Scheme (EUBS) may go some way towards addressing the present rise of Euroscepticism, breathing new momentum into the EU and pro-integration parties in the process.
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