According to the estimate of Eurostat, 21.9% of the EU population was at risk of poverty or social exclusion in 2020. This worrying situation is contrasted with minimum income schemes in Member States that have enormous shortcomings – from coverage to adequacy of benefits to lack of evaluation mechanisms.

With this new AK EUROPA position paper, AK welcomes the announcement by the European Commission of an initiative on this important issue. In our view, however, a directive would be the appropriate instrument for establishing definitions, basic principles and minimum standards for adequate minimum income schemes in terms of social policy, instead of the envisaged legally non-binding Council Recommendation.