192 M. Ferrera an EU fund to compensate cyclical unemployment is currently on the EU agenda. This would be a major step in terms of pan-European solidarity – possibly one of the first important building blocks of a future European Social Union. Most likely, this fund will also operate indirectly. Given its wide personal scope, it will be extremely important to render the link between the EU and the resources accruing to national authorities and, ultimately, citizens as clear and evident as possible. Survey data show that popular support for panEuropean forms of solidarity (see Figure 2). Figure 2 Support for various forms of pan-European solidarity (EU 6 averages) 75.9% 76.6% 55.9% A budget for economic and social Investments An EU fund for people in severe poverty Financial help for states that face a rise in unemployment Source: Ferrera and Pellegata, Can Economic and Social Europe Be Reconciled? Citizen Views on Integration and Solidarity, Milan, 2017, available at: www.resceu.eu Finally, a brand new supranational (and thus sympolitical) scheme could be established for insuring mobile workers against some risks (unemployment, maternity, disability etc.): a sort of 29th scheme (or 28th, after Brexit) separate from existing national schemes and providing homogeneous protections to those workers who move across borders. This idea has been circulating in the debate ever since the 1980s.20 As shown by Figure 3, popular support for the establishment of such a scheme would be very high. One of its advantages would be to ease the financial pressure (real or perceived) on domestic social protection systems stemming from the inflow of mobile workers and their families. In an ambitious scenario, this supranational scheme could catalyse the formation of cross-border insurance schemes, in line with the spatial and functional reconfiguration of the European econ- 20 Peters, D. & S. Vansteenkiste (1992), The Thirteenth State. Leuven: Acco.