by Eric J. Lyman
ROME, Oct. 8 (Xinhua) -- Italy is pushing for a European Union unemployment insurance scheme that will spread the cost of protecting Europe's unemployed from economic crisis and deepening ties between the 19 European states that use the euro currency.
Experts say its chances for becoming reality depend on whether the initiative is seen as an administrative or political challenge.
Italian Minister of Finance Carlo Padoan has cast the plan as "major progress toward solidarity and risk taking" in Europe. The plan would create a fund run under the auspices of the European Commission, and countries with sudden rises in joblessness could draw on the cash in the fund to replace a chunk of a workers lost wages for a span of months while the worker looks for a new job.
It is significant that a country would gain access to the fund based on the unemployment trend in a specific company. As such, a country with a low jobless rate would have access to aid if that rate ticks higher, but a country with a large percentage of its work force among the unemployed would not have access if that percentage remained unchanged.
For its part, if such a scheme were already in place Italy would not qualify for help: ISTAT, Italy's National Statistics Institute reported earlier in October that the country's unemployment rate continues to decline, dipping below 12 percent in August, the first time it fell beneath that threshold in 30 months.
But Italy sees the measure as important tool to deepen integration between the countries in the Eurozone.
"Like any idea that may be controversial let's wait and see what happens," Padoan said in a television interview. "We will try to convince our partners it will be a useful thing."
It is not the first time a scheme like this has been proposed -- France and Italy have both floated similar measures in recent years -- but the is the first time it is being presented in detail and with significant political will behind it.
But it also comes at a time when European states are increasingly divided after difficult negotiations over Greece and the handling of the growing migrant crisis.
According to Ilaria Maselli, a research fellow with the Jobs and Skills Unit and the Center for European Policy Studies in Brussels, the jobless insurance proposal is easier to imagine from an administrative perspective and more problematic from a political perspective.
"The administration side would have to harmonize the unemployment rules in the various countries, but that is relatively easy," Maselli said in an interview. "But as a political problem it is more complicated because many countries will be slow to agree on helping out weaker economies after all the fighting over Greece."
Italy says the plan will work under current European treaties, and that passing it would make the EU more resilient economically and make countries more likely to pursue labor reforms that will make European companies more competitive.
