Barcelona Study Visit 2023
Barcelona, 19 October
Unconditional Basic Income Europe, in cooperation with the UBI Lab Network and the Unconditional Basic Collective, is planning a study visit on October 19, 2023, for decision-makers from European municipalities (mayors and relevant advisors) to Barcelona in order to discuss opportunities of implementing local Basic Income experiments similar to the Renda Bàsica Universal (RBU) programme in Catalonia.
During the RBU experiment, 5,000 Catalan residents will receive unconditional payments of 800 EUR (300 EUR for children under 18) per month, for the duration of two years. Half of the participants have been chosen randomly throughout the region. The other half consists of the total population of two selected municipalities. An additional 5,000 persons will participate in the experiment as the control group.
The pilot is carried out by a dedicated office of experts established by the Catalan government in June 2021 and headed by Sergi Raventós Panyella. The office is supported by an international scientific board of distinguished basic income scholars. An advisory board with members representing social partners and civil society is responsible for observing the experiment and ensuring the connection to political and social debates.
The RBU experiment builds on the success of a predecessor minimum income trial in Barcelona, B-MINCOME. During this pilot that ran between 2017-19, 1,000 randomly selected households from the city’s three poorest districts received a means-tested cash transfer of up to 1,675 EUR per month. Of the 1,000 participating households, 550 have also participated in four active-inclusion policies.
- Official RBU website
- Catalonia will be home to ‘one of world’s most ambitious’ universal basic income pilot plans (Catalan News, 31/03/2022)
- Catalonia’s Universal Basic Income tryout to start on 1 January 2023 (TheMayor.eu, 29/08/2022)
- Spain: The Barcelona B-MINCOME experiment publishes its first results (BIEN News, 22/09/2019)
- B-MINCOME project website
AIMS OF THE STUDY VISIT
- Awareness and clarifications on the impact of completed pilot programmes such as the B-MINCOME and how it has affected the motivation behind and planning of Renda Bàsica Universal.
- Understanding the funding and financial planning of Renda Bàsica Universal.
- Awareness of the required personnel and project management needs for running a programme like Renda Bàsica Universal.
- Awareness of required efforts for convincing peers to implement a programme such as Renda Bàsica Universal.
- Creating long-term links between UBI advocates, academics, and members of political parties/movements from Catalonia and their peers in other progressive regions/municipalities in Europe
- Reinforcing the discussion around UBI in the region
PROGRAMME
- Welcome reception
- Presentation of Renda Bàsica Universal
- History and structure of the project
- Influence of the political sphere on the implementation
- Experiment design and evaluation plan
- Financing
- How to overcome political obstacles
- Future (how UBI could be implemented into law)
- Presentation of impact evaluation report of B-MINCOME
- Q&A with participating representatives of municipalities
- Lunch
- Workshop (open space) with academics, politicians and civil society activists from Catalonia on the social process towards establishing the pilot and possible implications of the findings on the public debate and on possibilities of spreading the idea among progressive municipalities across Europe
PARTICIPANTS AND PERSONS INVOLVED
UBIE and our partner organisations will invite a small number of mayors, policy advisors and other representatives of EU municipalities interested in the possible implementation of basic income pilots in their cities to participate in the study visit actively. We will also invite some UBIE members and civil society representatives involved in the advocacy of basic income pilots and the related collaboration with municipalities to be involved in the discourse.
We are looking for guests from municipalities all over Europe. We are asking you: If you know representatives from your community and candidates of upcoming municipal/regional elections, interested in learning how to organise a basic income pilot in their city (perhaps as part of their election campaign), we would happily invite them!