Unemployment benefit is easier to organize, because there is no question of transfering money to future times. It could take the form of a small VAT increase in all Europe, that would be redistributed as a very small benefit, calcutlated to not distort the wage repartition in the poorest country.
Say for example that the eurozone country with the lowest minimum income is Greece. This benefit would be calculated to be only a fraction of this minimum.
But, it would add up with the other benefits available in the country, and so increase slightly the income of unemployed troughout the continent. Globally, this would have a (small) expansionnary effect, and in effect would bind all countries together.
No argument of "never bail out the greek" would work, because unemployed in ALL countries would get the same benefit, including rich Germany. Obviously, it would relatively be more important for countries with a lower income.
Would this work? Anyway, that would be building Europe. A free fox in a free henhouse!
PIB UE 25: 18 285 milliards $
VAT 0,50%: 91,425 milliards $
Unemployed: 0,0191 billions people UE27 4786 $ per unemployed per year 398 $ per unemployed per month
Data is from Eurostat and IMF through wikipedia and mixes happily data for UE25, UE27 and 2007/2008. Nevertheless, for a rough calculation I think It's OK. Of course the system would have to be limited to eurozone countries to keep within the "optimal currency area". A free fox in a free henhouse!
I was more on something about 100/200€ per month, much lower than minimum wages or minimum income in any country, this being something additionnal to national benefits. A free fox in a free henhouse!
398 $ per unemployed per month
País SMI mes ------------ --------- Luxemburgo 1.610 € Irlanda 1.462 € Holanda 1.357 € Bélgica 1.336 € Francia 1.321 € Gran Bretaña 1.148 € Grecia 681 € España 600 € Portugal 497 € Polonia 334 € Rumanía 137 € Bulgaria 112 €
I'm so bad at english I don't know if I conveyed the idea properly. A free fox in a free henhouse!
I'll add another argument. It is usually assumed that organizations tend to defend their existence once created. At the moment, we have a set of european institutions that are defending themselves quite well: European Commission, European Parliament, European Council... Nearly all of them are of an economically conservative culture.
If such a system would be created, this means that some European "social" administration would be created and then defend itself, but which culture would be representative of traditionnal European social state rather than of anglo-economics. This would participate in a useful balance of power at the top. A free fox in a free henhouse!
