Europe's Housing Crisis: Families Struggling as Costs Soar and Crisis is Spiraling Out of Control!

📺 Video Information

**Published:** Premiered Mar 19, 2025

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Subscribe here: https://bit.ly/eudebates 🏠 "Can't Afford a Home? Europe's Housing Crisis is Spiraling Out of Control!" 😱 Over the past decade, housing prices in the EU have surged by an average of 48%, with countries like Hungary experiencing increases as high as 173%. Rents have also risen significantly, making it increasingly difficult for many Europeans to afford adequate housing. In 2023, 10.6% of urban households and 7% of rural households spent more than 40% of their disposable income on housing. This video delves into the factors driving these escalating costs and explores the European Union's initiatives to address this pressing issue.

Housing prices in Europe have exploded by 48% in less than a decade, leaving millions struggling to keep a roof over their heads. In some countries, like Hungary, the crisis is severe with price hikes up to 173%! Renting is also becoming unaffordable, pushing many families to spend over 40% of their income on housing. Find out what's driving this alarming trend, and discover how the EU is stepping up to tackle Europe's housing emergency.

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#eudebates the unique initiative aiming to promote debate, dialogue, knowledge, participation and communication among citizens. #HousingCrisis #EUHousing #RisingRents #CostOfLiving #HousingAffordability #HomePrices #RealEstate #SocialHousing #Homelessness #PropertyInvestment #MortgageRates #EUInitiatives #UrbanLiving #AffordableHousing #EconomicCrisis #HousingMarket #SustainableHousing #EuropeanUnion #YouthHousing #RentalCrisis

📹 Video Transcript

[0:00] you know very well the European Union faces a severe housing crisis which affects uh person of all ages and different families uh the housing prices have grown with around 48% and evolution determined by several factors including high cost for construction materials uh higher rates and uh less new constructions which has reduced the offer and more uh Acquisitions the approach of this crisis

[0:31] is crucial for economic and social cohesion and in order to reduce differences in the European Union which are fundamental objectives of the cohesion policy every year billions of Euros from the fund for the regional development are invested in social housing and in uh Energy Efficiency it is essential for the European Union to make more accessible housing available for population categories with low and median incomes all over the European Union the structures of today's hearing

[1:05] will be the following the debate will take place in two sessions the first part will be moderated by me and we will discuss about a way we can simulate the offer of available and affordable housing the second part of the hearing will be moderated by uh uh Mrs Langan zipan vice president of the emple committee and we will will discuss better access for everyone to decent housing and affordable housing

[1:36] now I will pass the floor to Mrs Langan Zen thank you very much Mr V for giving me the floor I'm replacing ample Cher Le Anderson who unfortunately could not be with us and it's my pleasure to co-share this joint public hearing with you let me also start by warmly welcoming our experts invited speakers members of the ri emple and housing committees and all other audience with this public hearing

[2:07] we are launching an extremely important discussions discussion which is as you said Mr B very timely to set the scene for discussion from the emple perspective I would that already before the pandemic it had become clear that there is a clear lck of advocate decent and affordable housing in Europe many Europe are living in unhealthy lowquality energy poor or overcrowded spaces or Worse facing eviction or homelessness research carried out by our

[2:42] agency demonstrates that there are 80 million people in the EU overburdened by housing costs and some 10% of the EU population spent 40% or more in the income on housing the housing cost overburden is significantly higher among the EU population at risk of poverty and lowincome households eurostat shows that 4% of the EU population experience severe housing deprivation and housing

[3:13] deprivation is at the heart of poverty and social incl exclusion and closely liked with unemployment the affordability Crisis crisis is foremost an urban phenomenon while rural Aras face their own problems regarding housing such as depopulation the situation differs greatly between different regions in Europe and a great variety of local Regional and National Housing solution exists approaches such as housing first have been proven by

[3:45] efficient in providing long-term solutions to those in needs the European pillar of social rights recognizes the right to social housing and housing assistance for those in need the right to Advocate shelter shelter and services to the homeless and recognize the need of protection against eviction of vulnerable people the rights intr in the pillar now need to be turned into reality the public hearing provides an opportunity to put forward proposals

[4:18] for this thank you thank you so much Mrs vice president Lang Zen now I want to give the floor to Mrs tinali chair of the special committee comme of housing thank you very much president uh so good morning everyone um I would like to begin by thanking uh the emple and Reggie chairs for inviting me to address you today uh the housing crisis facing Europe is uh is really something that encompasses different sectors and different issues because it stands at the intersection of

[4:51] our economic social and environmental policies it affects the daily lives of millions of Europeans challenges our cohesion objectives and demands an integrated approach uh that recognizes the different realities across urban and rural Landscapes so the housing special committee was established in recognition that housing requires dedicated attention at the European level um while of course respecting the principle of

[5:22] subsidiarity we knowledge that the European coordination can provide significant value add in addressing these challenges so today we confront a very dramatic situation housing cost consume over 40% of disposable income for nearly a quarter of lowincome households across the European Union young people are delaying family formation due to housing insecurity energy poverty as was also mentioned

[5:52] earlier affects uh many people approximately 50 million Europeans many living in poorly insulated homes and meanwhile homeless population are growing in nearly all member states so these challenges have been exacerbated by several factors where the housing market has become increasingly shaped by external Market forces that do not always necessarily align with the evolving demands of household uh and Society over time there is basically the

[6:26] impact of different markets are always centered on the same stock of uh uh houses have overlapped causing new market dynamics that we have not experienced before so it is in this context that the committee will work and pursue the priorities of its political mandate so first the European Union's cohesion policy instruments must continue to offer critical leverage for boosting the supply of affordable housing this directly addresses the First theme of today's hearing cohesion

[6:58] funding has proven essential for balanced territorial development enabling both Urban regeneration projects in cities and Community infrastructure in rural settlements the European Regional Development Fund has already demonstrated its potential but we need more targeted approaches that recognize the distinct housing markets in metropolitan areas versus more towns and Villages second we must improve housing quality and sustainability across all territories as our speakers

[7:29] today will discuss housing adequacy varies dramatically between urban centers and Rural communities Urban dwellers often face overcrowding but benefit from energy efficient buildings while rural residents may have more space but struggle with poorer building standards and higher energy cost third we must address the unique systemic barriers to housing access in different geographical context in cities this involves controlling speculation and ensuring L is available for social housing in rural areas it means

[8:03] maintaining services that make housing viable and attractive throughout all territories it requires developing appropriate regulatory Frameworks that protect vulnerable groups Beyond addressing current issues we are looking at different housing models which can offer best practices potential Solutions such as Innovative cooperative and social housing repurposing unused buildings leveraging on the best technological innovation in the construction sector so I really looking

[8:34] forward to the insights from today's distinguished speakers and the ensuing discussion because we are now in the phase of gathering all possible ideas and solutions for the European citizens so the expertise assembled here today will undoubtly strengthen our approach as the house of special committee working toward a comprehensive housing strategy that truly leaves no one behind thank you thank you

[9:05] chair now we have the section dedicated to our two experts um Mrs Ian Novak head of the direction for strategic planning and uh coordination of EU funds in the ministry of regional development in Croatia and Mr Denise chasu original minister for Housing and Urban agenda of the Bas country uh government in Spain 10 minutes each in order to hear about best practices in the two regions we'll start with Mrs IA

[9:44] Novak good day hello uh Mr Ben chair of regi committee Miss Langan sipen Vice chair of the emple committee Miss Tali chair of special house committee uh dear colleagues de dear ladies and gentlemen it is great honor to be here and present creation experience in relation to the housing uh housing crisis that is actually now uh more than ever uh seen as one of the priority to be resolved on

[10:15] the level of the European Union but together with uh member states uh please next slide before uh I start uh uh to go with the uh our experience on the cohesion policy funds on the Housing Solutions I would like to present that Croatia has prepared its first uh National housing plan as a midterm document which actually sets up the measures and

[10:48] priorities to be resolved but before I move to this part I would like to express that actually we have done tural mapping with the view to ensure the best uh measures to be implemented in the period until 2030 it is very important to mention that Croatia faces the similar challenges as maybe other uh other member states uh in which demand sures the supply and uh due to this uh causes uh prices are going up

[11:23] significantly this is of course not something that happen recently this is the structural problem of our uh overall construction sector that actually has not been recovering since 2008 just for your information in Croatia currently we can build up housing plans uh 30% less than we could before the major crisis in 2008 of course there is significant increase in the prices of the uh housing

[11:56] and construction Elements which also so support increase of the prices of the new housing buildings also we are having some uh special conditions in creation and this is considering that actually every third household is overcrowded but also we are facing a serious crisis in relation to our young people and our young families and this is that our young people stays at home with their parents for six years longer than this is in the uh average of the European

[12:33] Union affordable housing is something that is very important and Croatia is having 2.4 billion housing units however all housing units are not used for uh housing and for living 40% of those uh housing units are not used for living and out of them 600,000 actually are unoccupied of course I will turn to uh other part that is uh around 4,000

[13:06] 400,000 housing units which are used for tourist or other economic sectors also we have made the analysis which actually states that in Croatia there is a gap on the housing units that accounts to 240 ,000 which means that actually if we put uh aside that there is a 600,000

[13:39] housing units that are unoccupied and yet that there is a housing Gap to 240,000 housing units that would means that Croatia is actually not having the problem of the lack of the housing units but it is the problem how these housing units are actually used our housing uh midterm document housing policy plan that is prepared to last until 2030 actually is comprised from the several elements and this is related

[14:14] to the affordability of housing affordability of housing in uh relation to the purchase or to the lease or rent then sustainability issues and after all advanced special planning models as I said this affordability part is uh important since we know that uh our young people young families are not in position to ensure themselves uh with the first housing property and uh to

[14:46] this we will uh make uh several measures to be encountered then sustainability is in relation to the Energy Efficiency measures security of space better housing living condition Etc and the special planning model is that actually whatever we are planning in future should be in line with all the environmental uh impact assessments when we are talking about H housing policy tools we will make this through the

[15:18] three major uh activities this is the governmental framework which will be amended local initiatives that will be supported and of course finance and Investments amount of the our overall housing policy measure accounts to the almost two billion uh euros and this will be and this is not the exhausted list of the measures that will be implemented are support for building or buying first housing units for the people that are under 45 for Real Estate uh tax refund

[15:52] or refund of 50% of the P paid vat also as I mentioned there is a huge number of uh empty properties which will be activated to the measures that will be implemented then uh Catia will focus on the development of nonprofit housing associations and of course incentives for private Investments and now just to move to the uh the most important part of this presentation this is how the cohesion policy funds can actually Provide

[16:27] support uh for the uh social housing I think that in the uh regulatory framework actually uh we are having set up quite well uh level of uh activities that can support resolving the housing uh housing crisis in the European Union and Croatia has already in relation to our programming process 2127 developed the measures for the social housing on the uh rural areas uh

[17:01] that are part of the program competitiveness and cohesion and uh through these grants uh we will uh use to build uh new housing units on the uh rural territories in Croatia apart of this we also through the midterm review exercise actually ensured additional funding for those areas and uh we are hoping that maybe in future when some uh amendments uh will be done

[17:33] on the regulatory framework we will ensure even more funding for those areas apart from this uh through the financial instrument Croatia is actually implementing uh Financial incentives for the urban territories in which the financial viable uh projects can be financed through the Urban Development Fund within the integrated territorian Investments this is also something that will be ensured through the uh level of the measures uh under the midterm review

[18:10] and the third uh CornerStore is uh eiib technical support technical support is granted to five creation cities from the side of the EI and we are hoping that even more activities in relation to the social housing will be done through the eiib grants in the next uh period also I would like to uh share with you additional information that is that Croatia is not only implementing

[18:42] these activities in relation to the housing we are also through the de institutionalization process supporting uh activities of Housing Solutions in the long-term care of course in respect to sustainability we are having the uh multiple measures in relation to the increase of Energy Efficiency in the multi-apartment housing from the EU funds but as well as from the National Funds and this is something that needs to be actually emphasized that if we are

[19:16] using only EU funds this is not sufficient we need to actually cooperate and to include national funding to be in a Synergy with what we are doing doing on the level of the cohesion policy fund to ensure as much as possible best solution for our citizens thank you very much thank you Mrs Novak now I give the floor to Mr Dennis for 10 minutes

[19:51] also good morning um dear colleagues I would like to start by thanking this joint committee this opportunity we've been given to uh watch to see the uh position of the Baska uh country in a period on housing in a period when there's a crisis in Europe which is attacking uh competitiveness and the balance the EU now all these are objectives which have to do with the the

[20:22] nature of the project I won't spend too much time on describing this phenomenon it's already been diagnosed but the number of uh uh households are great are growing a lot more than in other areas the building of uh housing the empty a housing the S large surfaces conversion of uh uh of commercial buildings into uh housing is not sufficient where there is an increase of Demands for our type of

[20:56] of our lifesty this has given rise to an increase in uh prices for uh the middle class in Europe and in the bast country with our countries has done a lot of good within the last decade as for housing and in Spain we're very strong in uh rental uh property and protection and also various initiatives behind but these we still have not been able to fulfill the demand and we still require public policy

[21:29] this 2025 there was a declaration of the uh of the markets in the various uhas CI a common policy within many member states where the virtue is that of considering housing a right and a main right to uh maintain the rental rents we're looking at the law which was approved by the Spanish uh government in 2023 on the right to house and we're looking at a fiscal review which will uh help the uh renters with a lower income

[22:07] and we want to ensure that the rental market has more and more housings available what we're trying to do in the next few month is this future law in Urgent regulations for housing and that Parliament will approve this year we are willing to fulfill many of these rules which are considered critical for the more vulnerable areas where we look at this lack of housing available there are many reasons here The Basque region has the possibility of having more than

[22:41] 75,000 protective um rents but there's are blocked because of bureaucratic problems and we've seen that the uh Urban um requirements necessary for the development in our country and we need to structure better the buildable area buildable areas and maintain this program of housing where we look at the costs for urbanization which they have to deal with there is necessary to have certain action to change this

[23:18] trend when we have to deal with the contracts and needs for building another important chapter in the build in the construction of protective housing has to do with financing we have to have a special ecosystem uh if in the uh social aspect of housing public Powers alone are not sufficient to deal with this colossal investment challenge which we have to deal with we need to have private resources in order to increase uh

[23:53] sufficiently protective housing protected housing the private sector natural fact builds 50% of protected housing because we have this lengthy tradition in this sector the many cases have been uh allowing a land to be sold to private promotors and also this program for rentals which uh helps um home own owners who let their properties a protective rate and when we're also looking at the automous regions in Spain we are getting property

[24:31] from uh private um owners and putting it in the protected SE sector and we're also having further steps for cooperation public private uh nature in order to have uh capitals which will uh produce a lower uhow a lower value but will be for longer longer periods now the government is already working with European Investment Bank and we're wanting to incorporate within this

[25:02] initiative as a financial uh partner so that we can develop through uh public private investment 10,000 homes but this allows us to set aside The Basque uh question we want to take this opportunity that you've given us to say something in favor of this model of protective housing and European Collective housing these are formulas that have allowed for greater social cohesion than in other

[25:37] areas Collective housing show sees a European um element and has to be one of the main pillars of the social dimension in Europe and for the first time in its history Europe has to develop investment policies on a large scale in a sustainable way over time we're not talking about a Marshall Plan a pass which was just temporary we're talking about a constant structural strategy which will allow cities and metropolitan

[26:10] areas to develop plans for increasing uh the new homes uh the the Next Generation fund has really supported uh the housing market and our housing policy in our countries have been able to build more than 1,500 um atomes given to the given the help of the recovery and resilience fund but now we need to reduce differences between the countries with uh investments in public housing we believe that Europe

[26:45] must have some clear targets to harmonize this using European funds to contribute to reach this convergence this implies the needs to give a priority to to investments in area where there are uh fewer social uh housing and giving it as a more reasonable and Equitable uh housing when we adding to this we have to be careful to uh to the Improvement

[27:17] of res the park of res residential uh housing here we've gone beyond 20,000 approved household we had 184 million uh from the uh mechanism of resilience and Recovery whilst the Bas country has added from its own fund given to the many neighboring communities who've set up this hold system for the um energy

[27:50] reconversion The Basque area which has the most oldest uh household units of Europe and is doing this recovery it is necessary to bear in mind not only the energy question but also that it has to be accessible at the mo the moment Improvement is based exclusively or recovery is based exclusively on the energy uh strategy which has pushed uh techn technology for

[28:21] ventilation for the Improvement of the thermal Elements which have incre U which have led to a more sustainable and resilient uh group of housing for decarbonization so this should be balanced with more ambitious project for accessibility in order to to contribute to Great uh inclusion and have a greater amount of housing this offers a a great um an improved development of uh a trans

[28:55] vertical transport system and this has led to technological development where we find a difference in many International markets this accessibility put into the uh areas of the built in the 20th century improve the social measures too now today we want to ensure that Europe does not forget the household cause the political threats and the need for rearming cannot

[29:28] uh be critical for the housing system it would be a big mistake because it would end up damaging our own children supporting uh Collective and accessible housing is part of our uh social model in the postwar era and it must give equal give rise to equal opportunities this is part of our moral obligation to give uh uh hope to the European middle classes where aware of the geop of the

[30:00] difficulty the geopolitical difficulties at this moment in history and we are aware that what is urgent has changed very much over the last few weeks external threats though must not make us forget of our social s challenges and housing is one of the main pillars which must be protected apart from security and defense Europe will resist better to with a structural program for building accessible housing which offers uh hope to the middle classes and reduces the

[30:35] danger of social in Injustice which generates so much disaffection in our political system and European uh democracy is based on this thank you is the time for our reporters uh and we start with Mr Marcos Ros reporter of n report on the role of cision policy investments in resolving the housing crisis for the regi

[31:07] committee thank you chairman and chairs of the two committees that are part of this joint point on the housing problem first of all I'd like to thank both of the experts who took the floor for the vision they have given us on the management of the prom of the this of the regional level to of an autonomous Community it's uh this point for our house housing policy and ensuring that

[31:41] it becomes a priority of the EU we have to consider all the levels of administration this is a multiactor problem it's not a question of regional local authorities or national uh authorities or the EU itself we are convinced that there has to be inter administrative coordination in order to deal with an extremely um difficult problem now I'm going to look at some of the policies which were detailed from the The Basque region

[32:17] because we appear to be Innovative and for policies which are sustained over time they've given results and they are the results of an agreement between different uh political parties who have been present in the various Bas governments and over year over the years have shown that they are successful and they've shown that the policy cannot be something that just says right we're giving everything now because we're convinced about this in four or five

[32:50] years later it's finished no it we're looking at public promotion at rentals at taxes man management uh Innovation for uh protected housing but what is necessary is to have a public uh aspect now I represent the committee for uh Regional development I'm looking at the public side now you mentioned uh the uh the funds for Next Generation but those will only be temporary over time and

[33:20] when they are finished we will have to keep on funding with European uh funds as well uh public public housing policies and so we have to have access to the uh large policies Regional funds cohesion fund and the European social fund and the fedus fund now at the moment These funds only allow two objectives uh energy recovery and social housing now in this committee we're going to submit a report and what we are asking is on the one hand to take

[33:52] advantage of the midterm review to look at the funds that are being invested and on the other uh small re legislative reform so that we can have these objectives within uh public policies that include different criteria for vulnerable um groups financial instruments with public uh funding tied to the public use of the land and of the households I would conclude by stating in our communities and other European regions we've seen how household um

[34:28] construction which uh which were funded um publicly ended up being sold uh to Big conglomerates which ended up eliminating the householders now we want to ensure that we that that the there has to be a certain conditionality so that there we don't lose the priority use the public priority use thank you Mrs EST Galan reporter for the opinion in emple

[35:05] committee thank you I'd like to thank all the raor and all the people who have uh submitted this uh report because at this moment in time European citizens are hoping that this discussion takes place because it's just a real need and it's our responsibility to deal with this as you know within the EU 31% of renters spend more than 40% of the their monthly uh income for their

[35:38] household mother young people between 18 and 24 live with their parents because they have no possibility of becoming emancipated now this is just an example of the a crisis a household crisis which is hitting millions of people in a vulnerable situation ation especially in cases of poverty and exclusion which is impacting the whole EU this report as I said at the beginning is more important than ever

[36:10] and I would like to claim two key points from the social perspective bearing in mind the committee from which I where I'm preparing this document first of all it is essential recognize that access to a household is has to be a fundamental right at the same level as other rights such as the right to schooling or right to Health at the moment this right is

[36:40] recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in the European pillar for social rights however it is not included in the charter of fundamental rights of the EU now this has to change the right to a household has to be uh included in the charter must have a solid legal framework which obliges the member states to consider this right in the policies of each country it is also essential to strengthen uh possibilities

[37:12] for social and public housing because the existing crisis shows that the market alone cannot guarantee access to an accessible housing for the whole population so it is necess necessary to have a social Focus which lead us to uh construct and have a and have a par of public housing for vulnerable people young people vulnerable people migrants uh poor lower income people disabled anyone who has to look at an at a

[37:47] further barrier before having access to housing for this reason we have to put limits to investment funds they are buying up our cities and our uh changing um our houses into spec speculative uh properties these are factors who give a priority to money over the right to housing have contributed significantly to the existing crisis inflating prices and excluding thousands of people to access to a home so it is essential that housing finan with public funds has to

[38:23] be blocked and must remain in public hands and the Union you have 1.200 uh, um people without this and yet there's 11 million empty houses it is scandalous and it is not acceptable and it cannot be accepted within the middle of a housing crisis so we need Solutions and we need to um

[38:54] encourage have to be used to feed the stock yeah you have to I have to cut am I being told that I have to uh stop yes oh can I carry on thank you so in conclusion we must not forget that the house in Cris is a question of Human Rights human dignity and social justice and to resolve it we must

[39:27] guarantee that the right to housing has to be recognized as a fundamental right and the public and social housing policy have to be a priority in the Europe agenda only in that case can we have an inclusive and just Europe the floor to rapporter for the special committee on housing Mr B borha jenez La graas thank you now to deal with the problem it is essential first of all identifying its

[39:58] causes uh housing uh demand is very high but the offer is uh slowed down by the cost of production and also structural problems in the sector there's not sufficient offer an increase in uh housing will just uh increase the prices and we'll find ourselves in worse situation cohesion funds can essential have an essential role for the offer which is something we need to do if we want to come atess accessible housting including

[40:32] uh using cohesion funds is a go good solution I think the European commission is working on this and I consider this as good news now you have to encourage a strategy of investments in the housing sector through existing European funds as such as cohesion Next Generation and the role of the European Investment Bank if it is possible and within intervening in the policy of the member states this formula furthermore is being competed that we've see in the regional development

[41:07] committee which uh uh where we have an example in my region Aragon where we have set up a plan with for more housing and we've reached now 350 million EUR of which 103 million EUR come from European funds and the plan is that of in help in young people people who have problems to uh find uh housing can do

[41:38] it now the cohesion funds for the Urban Development are essential this is a key for the future of cohesion policy and increase increase social housing for Energy Efficiency as well so the role of the regional and local bodies uh is key they're the ones who know the area know their population and they're the ones who have to approve the urban planning the uh group from the EP is

[42:09] talking about simplified and efficient cohesion policies but they have to be transparent and I'd like to ask uh the committee how are they're going to guarantee that the member states will give the final data ensuring transparency in the in the management of these funds given that the member states will be able to choose the when using the available funding for the cohesion policy and I'd like to know whether the commission has traced any program to guarantee or ensure that a sufficient

[42:41] part of these funds will be aimed at the building of the essential social housing proced procedure uh we have maximum two minutes for each member and we start with Mrs kin from regie and DPP mer thank you chair housing is a competency of the member states but has a European framework covering it as

[43:15] well thank you for these specific examples from Croatia and from the best country which align with the principles which we have outlined in the special committee on housing these are vital issues and what we need is a real strategy to ensure the correct use of the cohesion funds and the Next Generation funds so we're looking at 15 million pounds a million euros sorry at the next session we need to ensure that these are spent correctly the commissioner responsible for energy and housing has presented how they will be

[43:51] working with the EI on a platform it is good that represent atives from DG um Regio and the EI are here today can we hear more on this platform and um what work you are doing to engage private Partners to um ensure that funds are correctly spent because we are running out of time thank you chair India from emple and snd thank you well first of all I'd like to thank

[44:26] the expert s who have uh appeared here than a very important moment in this Parliament you know to discuss the housing problem from a social point of view but also uh a position of territorial cohesion so at this point I would like to ask a question to the advisor uh from the the Bas government Europe is looking at a great demographic Challenge and I'd like to know which good practices are you uh carrying out

[44:59] in housing policy which is connected with this intergenerationality and the solution of housing for young people so they can be become more emancipated which is a problem you have mainly in the Basque region but also for the elderly to combat uh loneliness uh and that they can have uh housing that allows them to be independent and yet safe for most of their time than of their lifespan thank

[45:30] [Music] you thank you thank you to The Experts as well thank you for your input when norvac spoke about young people this was something which is of particularly of importance to me young people are staying home for longer because it's not possible for them to rent Flats they can't become independent

[46:01] and they're not fulfilling their potential as a result of this I'm particularly interested in young people living in rural areas that they have the opportunity to decide how they want to live their future how they're going to find a job in the Reggie committee we talk a lot about the right to stay the right to stay means that those living in rural re areas have the opportunity to live good lives to live in their own um flats and

[46:32] houses to build their own future from my point of view looking at the rural areas where I live I've visited many of them we're seeing situations why where housing is being pulled down and this is often happening because there is not enough infrastructure not the right infrastructure in rural areas so we need to make rural areas a attractive we need to be building housing of course but we need to establish the infrastructure the

[47:02] framework so that it is possible for people to move to these areas and live good lives so this is important I really want to underscore this and this is something which we need to pay attention to of course it's also important that housing remains public property and not that not everything is privatized the is this if we don't do this is that prices are driven up and we need to think also

[47:32] about who decides who gets a flat or somewhere to live and who doesn't and this is why we need to support um local authorities this is another important point which I wanted to underscore thank you H Vidal from emple committee and Patriots thank you as you know the uh Bas council is looking at housing in access to housing in normal situation is basically uh a

[48:08] fantasy for most uh uh Spanish young people however the medal his defend Depends for its possibility to have Chron constant interventions in future we have to look at Financial possibilities however uh this is a a point of view that does not look at the market now I don't believe this entirely but it's also very far from reality the government of the your party if I'm not mistaken you talk about

[48:41] this uh principle of building massively protected housing in Spain and you're talking about this but we haven't built even one your model is a question of intervening uh putting a cap on rents many regulations so these are obstacles tolerance for a uh or do you prefer to increase the offer of housing available by liberalizing land and reducing the um

[49:13] administrative barriers at all levels starting from the state Administration down to the local with the reduction uh of taxes on housing and I'm asking you this because I've heard from both sides in your in your intervention so I would like you to go a bit further in depth this which model are we talking about thank you M from Reit and thank you chair and thank you to The Experts for their contribution this morning affordable housing is one of the

[49:50] most pressing challenges facing our communities across the European Union and it's a challenge that's particularly acute in rural areas like my own constituency the Midlands Northwest of Ireland in many rural areas we Face a double Challenge on the one hand young people are leaving because they cannot find suitable housing near their work and the services and on the other hand those who want to return are held back by a local property Market that often does not cater for their needs we need to see more flexibility within the erf and the cohesion funds to directly

[50:22] support affordable housing projects particularly in rural regions where Market driven Solutions have failed however it is not only rural areas that face this challenge it can be also acute in urban areas cohesion policy has a vital role to play in addressing this challenge CH we must support local authorities to build and renovate affordable housing we must F fund affordable housing projects to ensure that our citizens have access to Safe quality accommodation we must promote energy efficient housing to help tackle

[50:55] energy poverty in the community we must also expand eligibility for housing investment the current capacity to use EU funding is far too narrow and the funding envelope is just far too small however funding alone is not the key issue not the only issue we must cut through red tape and simplify access to cohesion funds for housing projects local authorities and housing bodies often struggle with complex requirements and we need to reduce these barriers so that funds can reach communities and colleagues this morning as Vice chair of

[51:26] the housing Committee of this Parliament I also want to appeal to you I say it is crucial that affordable housing is integrated with broader Regional development strategies investing in housing without improving transport links and local services will not deliver for our communities boosting affordable housing Supply true cohesion policy is not just about bricks and mortar chair it's about keeping communities together supporting Rural revital revitalization and ensuring that no region is truly left behind

[51:58] thank you Mr Gordon banat from regi committee and greens part thank you Mr chair uh I would like uh to focus um on what can we do now and how can we act act act fastly and I'm thanks to for Miss Novak uh intervention and explanation how Croatia did changes in the midterm review to prioritize the housing which is now open space for all the member states to prioritize the housing in the midterm review of

[52:29] cohesion policy we will wait and see how many member states actually will do that I hope all of them will do it so they will confirm what we are saying here that you know the crisis is here but uh my question is also you know to what extent this midterm review was open to the consultations for the regions and the cities because it was really a short window and I'm not aware if the cities and the regions across Europe were aware that now is the chance to prioritize the housing within the cohesion policy and

[53:01] the second question is also related uh to the fact that up today uh as it was said we had an opportunity to use the cohesion policy for social housing primary which means that we've been mostly using erdf fund but now we are talking not only about the social needs which should be protected and should stay integrated everywhere but now we have to make step further also to refer on the affordable housing so to include those who are not socially vulnerable but they have a need for housing and to do that so uh we I think will'll need

[53:39] more space in the cohesion policy because now in the midterm review the states were able to reorganize the money from erdf but as far as I understand you were not allowed to touch the cohesion fund because the article 7 paragraph 5 of cohesion fund explicitly forbids investments in affordable housing it for uh it allows for Investments of course in Energy Efficiency but not into the affordable housing to build the new stock so my question also to you is would be helpful for the regional

[54:12] authorities and National authorities also to open the cohesion fund for this kind of funding to change article 7 paragraph five something what we as a parliament can do in the forthcoming debate those are my question thank you very much thank you Mrs Gomez from snd and dle committee firstly I would like to um thank thank you for this

[54:45] debate and I would like to uh report about um a a major issue which I'm concerned with yesterday it was reported in Portugal all day [Music] that that 200 um people are living in um impossible conditions it was explained that the

[55:16] government is not responsible for the housing crisis but if the government and the EU if none of them are responsible then who is responsible are we going to just leave our citizens to their fate something needs to be changed there was a good example in Portugal uh around the uh recovery and resistance fund over two billion euros was was given to um Housing Development

[55:52] by the Portuguese government but this is just a drop in the ocean furthermore to what uh Madame Novak said in rural areas we need to prioritize um acting but it's important that the construction of housing takes place in um in correspondence uh with um infrastructure for example uh transport infrastructure

[56:26] because otherwise people won't be able to stay in rural areas I worked on the report for 2027 and I um brought this experience recovery and resistance funds um are are used but he's talking about a sustainable strategy and not simply a marshal plan I um signed a declaration recently

[57:04] where we demanded a Marshall Plan maybe we can make the use of cohesion funds more flexible we shouldn't forget about um the homeless without housing there is no democracy and we want to to build up democracy Yak from EP thank you chair as an EP coordinator in the committee of housing crisis uh I warmly welcome this

[57:37] uh discussion addressing the Urgent matter of affordable housing what we need our strategic uh targeted Investments under cohesion policy and we need a quick reaction we need reaction now so as a member states have the unique opportunity in the mid time rev review of the cohesion programs to increase the funds for housing I'm very especially glad to hear today that uh my home country Croatia is very aware of the housing problem and sees the cohesion policy as the part of the solution so the cutting of the red tape simplifying uh permitting procedures and

[58:12] increasing cooperation between public and private sector are necessary to boost housing uh uh Supply promptly so uh finally uh we need to flexib flexibilized cohesion policy and responsive to the to diverse local needs empowering National regional and local authorities to deliver real housing solution and my question is to miss Ian Noak uh you have mentioned today that you find a cohesion policy that is a good uh ground for development what would be your suggestion for the housing

[58:46] thank you thank you Mrs Sano Sierra from snd and regi committee thank you I'd like to thank Madam no and Mr Cho for their uh very comprehensive reports I agree with both of them but the problem of access to housing is really uh condemning a whole um generation and it's throughout the EU

[59:18] but this situation is especially very critical in uh the rural areas the lack of housing office is one of the main reasons which leads to young people leaving their uh villages in their towns and this makes it very difficult from the demographic point of view of this point case there's not just one recipe we can't have one an antidote We There are rural areas where you don't have

[59:49] accessible uh housing but the in tourist areas where you do have housing but it goes to tourist it's in a very expensive my area is uh a mountain um tourist area with one of the highest second homes the houses offered are at exorbitant prices and many have had to accept to live in a trailer in a caravan so I would like to ask you how do you think that the cohesion policy can offer Solutions and

[60:21] stimulate the offer by uh bearing in mind the specific istics of each individual areaa from Patriots and reg committee thank you very much for giving me the floor chair I will try to be brief first of all I would like to thank very much for organizing this hearing today because I believe that this exchange of views at the moment when we have the crisis of affordable housing is

[60:54] very important so many thank thanks to both speakers and I have uh two questions perhaps because most things have been said by other colleagues first I would like to know uh in your countries how did you manage to handle the rules for State a rules and debt uh barriers for large cities because for us it would be really uh useful to know what specific uh legal proposals should be submitted by the European commission

[61:27] to help member states and my second question I was interested to hear that uh one of the issues in both of these countries is uh lack of Investment Housing um or housing where people do not live so how about some changes of Taxation did you do some changes of Taxation for these housing units thank you thank you Mrs um Miranda from greens and regi committee

[62:03] thank you CH this week the C at my party in Cabanas has said that in written to me saying that his town there are 16 um rentals for uh 22 households now for a young person that is only earning uh 1,200 EUR a month can't afford to buy there and we be told in another area that there's 49% of households that are EMP houses that are uh empty or last uh week of the end at Santiago de

[62:39] compostella at the end of the Camino and the uh The Basque countries the Camino goes through it goes through Croatia and many countries and you see how this influences the uh tourist uh housing so I would like to ask the reporters these initiatives in areas with less than 100,000 inhabitants towns that are struggling to survive it's the main concern that most of European citizens have and this is the first concern in Galia for

[63:16] instance the regulation of the use of housing in residential buildings that was done in Santiago and which is so innovative puts a limitation to the um type of to the uh rentals that were mentioned in the report on accessible housing so this Parliament must legislate and it have to make the the cohesion funds more flexible but we must also bear in mind the effects of massive tourism of speculation because over

[63:49] years it's been the working classes that have had to pay for this because they can't access a a home and they can't even rent this Berna from ECR and regi committee thank you I will speak as shadow rapporter of the file on uh cohesion policy and housing and as a member of the House committee first of all I'd like to thank you for this discussion and for having had a joint discussion having involved the house

[64:22] committee as well with the chair I think that one of the problem problems that we've all mentioned in our various discussion that we don't have a global view as to this problem a harmonized view throughout the member states because a lot of the accomp the responsibility is in the hands of the national governance but a lot of experiences such as the ones we mentioned today uh probably uh we see that we don't have a real picture of the all the situations both of good

[64:52] practices or state-ofthe-art when you look at the member states on the housing emergency who has greater needs who needs a type of activity rather than another in the house committee very quickly audited both the European bank and commissioner uh fto and commissioner Aman who have said something as when looking at the size of the influ of the investment they given some Hope on the commitment of the commission however I

[65:23] think an important think we could do is find uh a solution to have a general uh type of causes and like to thank the colleagues who have voted a pilot project that I submitted and was submitted for accessible sustainable housing uh build uh building and so that it could be set up which is that of supplying identifying and mapping and creating an archive the possibility of having a general overview of the problem

[65:55] and then then we can again go with better knowledge within with the Comm the regi committee the work we're doing here in the house committee and of course those who are following it in the EMP committee uh we can have the possibility of at last having a general overview and we can really pinpoint what we're trying to do in our policies not just according to our assessments but when we look at objective data thank you from reg

[66:30] committee thank you chair dear colleagues waiting what are we um expecting from this um plan it's dictated by uh punitive idea around ecology like for the increase um for the Angy market and banning combustion engin engines uh for 2035 the EU is heading towards degrowth which is not considering the economic and social reality of the citizens of its member states these are citizens

[67:04] that we barely even recognize anymore there are increased uh standards and this is only going to uh worsen the housing crisis and reduce the amount of uh construction and renovation the EU is trying to create um a state um Aid uh plan I will add that housing is not under the competence of the EU once

[67:38] again we are witness to a uh a creeping of the scope of centralizations of of the EU when it comes to housing the European commission is looking um to following from on from health and defense they're looking to gain greater competence the commission is abusively taking in Greater competences this is to the detriment of

[68:08] member states and democracy and the subsidiarity principle so I would like to raise the alarm around all of the um attacks um on on on the sovereignty of member states thank you left and firstly I would like to thank all the speakers um and for everything that they

[68:39] told us at this debate it's important that we cover the needs of citizens this is currently not the case and at a European level we need to do something housing is a fundamental right for all citizens but unfortunately we're seeing that it's become a privilege for many CI in my country uh Greece I must say that there is a heightened crisis at affects um Greeks many Greeks are spending over 35%

[69:11] of their um income on housing so I have some questions firstly which policies or Finance instruments do you believe will be useful to ensure that housing is appropriate and affordable especially in Island regions in tourist regions secondly there is lots of insecurity this is a a major obstacle for for the in investment uh from the uh

[69:41] Development Fund it's important forc decent and affordable housing so I would like to know what proposal uh you would suggest for reducing these obstacles to investment my final question is uh the around the renovation of existing housing this is an important part of the green deal how can we ensure that um this investment in renovating these housing is Affordable for households who have lower or middle

[70:12] incomes this is for the next mff thank you very much I we finish here the K procedure I will now give the floor to both Mrs Novak and Mr uh each for five minutes approximately thank you for all the questions that you have asked I think these are very this is a very concrete

[70:43] uh discussion and it will probably last longer than it has lasted in the last year I think that a lot of uh uh this can be done by National States and especially together with the European Union of course we cannot always look towards the European Union that is going to finance ourself we also have uh to take care of it ourselves how how to do it depending on the uh specific needs of

[71:15] a specific area and therefore one solution is not uh uh one size fits all and uh this is something that we have to recognize that's why we need very detailed mapping we cannot start activities if we don't recognize well the situation in the field when we talk about what the cohesion policy could adapt to I can give an an example that is related to uh climate tagging all the

[71:46] codes that contribute uh uh towards the climate 4 uh have a climate tagging zero what does it mean mean in practice this means that we have less possibilities to uh frontload to load uh or to earmark uh uh additional additional funds for housing because then we are going to uh impact the uh the allocation of rdf of

[72:17] 30% uh we also have to fulfill other things related to uh uh to the coh cision policy and this is one of the uh basic elements that we have to fulfill therefore we have to uh adapt this segment for the future when we talk about rural areas uh Croatia is doing many activities to activate uh business ensure connect connectivity therefore we have an integrated territorial program

[72:50] that includes uh elements of industrial transition that goes to towards less developed areas we have a segment for our Islands we have a segment for integrated uh integrated territorial investment we do a lot in order to uh to uh uh to use uh these uh these um uh territorial features also when we talk about the midterm review our elements have already

[73:25] been uh uh been shared with all the representatives of our common uh committee the monitoring committee that means that uh they were they had uh become aware of what midterm review is therefore we have to do this if we have to have a good discussion about midterm review when we talk about young people and when we speak about young families and their

[73:58] needs we mustn't stop thinking about the elderly within our national plan uh for housing care we will also include the elderly so with the program 65 plus we are going to consider how can how we can ensure uh better uh housing uh for our elderly and uh also our citizens that uh with with

[74:29] the limited Mobility we have to think that we are all going to become old and we have to address their needs as well so I would what I would like to say is that uh we have to work together on these elements related to this crisis the housing crisis in the European Union the activation of these empty Flats is something that is going to ensure a quicker activ quicker action because we don't have to work on so many

[75:03] documentation for C citizens we are going to reduce the uh CO2 emissions and uh when we include the renewable uh sources of energy then we can also ensure those elements that are need needed for uh fit for 55 thank you thank you Mr reaso Jaso thank you I think this is very interesting thank you for all the questions and for all you contributions now Marco Ross was asking what type of conditions could we put for

[75:39] the future funds well the EU could have available to help the member states and the regions to improve the quantity of the stock of uh housing I think it's essential when we're talking about results we all here have a bit of interesting in housing we know that it's important and we need to have a good amount of housing starting from a sustained Investments uh over time and to ensure that this were always public

[76:13] and protected there are regions in my country too in Spain where uh there's public money which is invested for into um uh into new housing and then it is left to uh degrade and then it is bought up and then it is being uh it is no longer protected and and this is one of the conditions we have to ensure that it remains in public hands on the other hand EST Galan uh was asking was

[76:46] considering housing as a fundamental right well yes we agree but this impli in the market we're not trying to uh cause fear we're improve we are regulating the market in such a way that we manage uh we do it already with uh uh necessary element uh necessary goods and so is housing and we've got to guarantee the needs of the owners but also protect the um renters now here we've got to

[77:21] it's not a question of a constant uh chronic uh investment no it's it's a question of demand and offer when we say that that the times are so long we need this time to protect us where we have to we have to uh regulate the market it doesn't have to be forever but until we manage to manage the whole system the idea is to leave the the protected sector but what is essential at this point is to increase the offer but it

[77:58] needs time and you have to regulate the prices it's now you were talking about Good practices that we could offer now the modern of these of the uh housing we're talking about allows for a greater use of the land but not just for residential property but also to manage land which is necessary for equipment and there to can also have uh housing these can be

[78:29] intergenerational for young people for instance and there we also talked about this to generate conditions can that encourage the uh they become that they can become independent and it has to be maximum 5 years but affordable and the same should be for the elderly as well an exchange for moving into these properties they could put their own property on the uh

[79:00] market for uh regular uh rental and in this case we can have a general benefit for the whole of society Gomez I seem to understand that she was talking about the need to have a intensive plan but I thought more than a plan a short plan such as that of the resilience and Recovery plan what we need is a investment sustained over time

[79:33] not a lot of money in a short period of time but rather something that we can maintain the investment to ACC company Society uh and uh have these new uh homes now Madam Sano was also talking about another interesting element making it more intensive we have that in the large cities and the suburbs but also in small areas that can be uh tourist uh areas you talked about Aragon but also

[80:04] the back countries we have coastal areas Faya liitu deavia which are small towns with a strong tourist pressure which is being influenced because it doesn't have a homes or housing uh available for its young people and so uh uh to we can make it we can put it without giving any further licenses for tourist rentals because it's incompatible these towns have to carry out a study and we can contribute

[80:37] of the limits that these small towns have to deal with because they can't fulfill all this demand without putting at risk the uh housing uh situation for its own citizens I'll give the floor to the representative ative of the European economic and social committee the European commission and the European Investment Bank Mrs Carman barera from the European economic and social committee for

[81:09] maximum 4 minutes okay thank you very much chair investing in accessible housing has to be a strategic um element and and since 2027 we have to look at accessible housing and social housing with uh Innovation and parallel The Proposal of doubling the investment in accessible housing is a significant opportunity but to maximize its impact it is NE to have

[81:44] Innovative Investments and Strategic investment within the cohesion policy because this can't solve the deficit of funding for housing but it should be an area for coordinating and mobilizing further funds with the bank and through the uh EU platform and in order to take advantage of the cohesion funds this represents a promising solution but it requires many uh simplifications and

[82:15] standardizations in order to increase its acceptance within the the policy for investment we must increase the potential to deal with the significant amount of housing uh necessary which is limited at the moment you need more investment that what is usually available in the traditional market so the bank becomes an ideal partner for our cohesion policy the instrument that which allows us to have the funds to which will be reinvested can lead to

[82:49] accessible uh housing and this is innovative Financial instruments are necessary and this can also contribute uh but we must ensure that it does not lead to Greater increases in prices the next mCP uh has promising possibilities for increase accessible housing especially if we can align it with the structural reforms that are necessary combining investments in the construction of housing with reforms and the with the uh permits which are

[83:22] granted rules on uh the land use and state regulations the EU could also look at the limitations of the offer and a deficit in funding in this way a reformed State investment can have a specific impact by giving greater flexibility with the development of mixed investment which the rules at the moment are limiting however the implementation systems are significant because conditioning this to specific

[83:53] reforms could could cause bottlenecks in regions that are leading to these changes the housing market varies very much throughout the EU under standardized and the prescription for standardized uh reforms can be a problem but looking at income this gives us uh doubts as the parameters needed because they have to be developed in a longer period period of time than the cycles and the programs available which brings

[84:28] the causes the need for having rapid Solutions instead of Sustainable Solutions the next cmcp could look at this PR Problem by recognizing housing as a question of economic competitiveness integrating it within the competitiveness European fund which uh we look at the intervention of housing for the pressure of the labor market the development of the innovation ecos system and the results in the region would lead to an adequate balance

[85:00] between the necessary reforms uh flexible Investments which recognize the Dual role of Housing and social cohesion and economic development guaranteeing that the limitations to housing do not touch their competitive European competitiveness and the World level deputy director for DG Regio chair thank you very much um honorables uh langen seen and tinali made very

[85:31] clear at the beginning of this conversation why the the housing has become such a big concern and a big priority at the at the European level so much that uh president V Deion presented uh political guidelines last uh last summer to this house uh indicating housing of one of her uh key priority the U vice president the Executive Vice President fto was in front of the housing special committee at the beginning of U of March and he made very clear one that uh Co that the U budget

[86:05] is already doing a lot for the in the housing sector more than 30 billion Euro are spent between the recovery resilience facility and cohesion funding he made also very clear that uh he will intends to follow up on the promise of the president to double uh funding for the housing sect seor by injecting liquidity through cohesion policy and he will put forward ideas uh on how to do it uh possibly with some legislative adjustment to reflect some of the concern that you have expressed in terms

[86:38] of flexibility incentives and definition of the scope of what can be done in the housing in the housing sector and finally he made very clear that he intends to use the midterm review as the moment in which we will will need to engage uh with the uh authorities managing the structural funds very seriously to ensure that resources are shifted and and and and priority is given to housing housing investment that said let's be clear that will also very

[87:11] much depend on the willingness of those authority to reinforce investment on on housing and this will happen over the next few months let me just conclude by pointing to uh sharing through reflection the first is on the territorial dimension of that was mentioned by honorable tinal at the beginning of this discussion uh while it's very clear that we do need a much stronger European framework and what some of you called a strong multi-level

[87:42] uh coordination between level of governments in this area at the end of the day housing markets are local and decisions on what to do where to do it uh is very much in the hands of local auth ities and there's another reason that some of you mention and this is my second reflection is that is at the local level that you can organize the integration of policies that is much needed because it's very difficult to imagine that we will invest in the housing sector without at the same time thinking of what this will imply in terms of accessibility in terms of

[88:15] mobility in terms of the impact on the waste and Wastewater sector in terms of access to uh basic basic uh uh Services whether education or health and the final reflection and here I close is that we also need to think of how to use the funding uh available not only to invest but also to um favor those reforms that are needed for the housing market to function effectively because sometimes reforms are as important as

[88:46] the money available thank you thank you Mrs Luana Tomo head of division at European Investment Bank dear chairs honorable members uh thank you very much for inviting the E uh to join this public hearing on housing investing in affordable housing is both a social uh responsibility and the foundation underpinning any productive economy it is about giving citizens the right to live work study where they choose and this is something that The Honorable members of the House mentioned

[89:18] several times today this is also one of the key points that our president Nadia calvinho made a couple of days ago in the annual meetings of the i in Luxembourg at the I Group Forum um the second message that she passed is the key importance of Partnerships according to our latest uh investment survey that we also published a couple of days ago the the need to increase the supply of affordable housing is very urgent uh the data is clear coming from this report that EU

[89:49] must build an additional 1 million new homes this year to C with the demand and renovate additional 5 million uh units uh per year the annual investment Gap overall is estimating at 270 million uh 270 billion uh to fill this Gap uh we need to mobilize Investments public and private from National and EU level um we cannot afford to do the same we need to increase the scale and the scope of this Investments and precisely this is what

[90:23] we are planning to do with our action plan for affordable housing that was also mentioned a couple of times um it builds on nine months of extensive consultation with stakeholders from the housing sector what we plan to do is to double the um financing to6 billion EUR for the housing sector and we also plan to expand the uh offer for the whole housing sector uh value chain to step up the construction but also to step up the renovation the Energy Efficiency

[90:55] renovation in buildings and for that it's very key that we will work in Partnerships um in fact we are very much already working with European commission with member States cities and regions npbi so National promotion Banks which are very important to leverage the public uh resources the public financing but uh from National and and and EU funds and of course Very importantly the private financing and in this respect um also Alo we would like to share a couple of Reflections on how cohesion policy uh plays a key role for uh for this uh

[91:32] sector first as it was mentioned just now uh by Nicola de michelis and before by um the chair of the house committee and other honorable members housing is a local challenge so any solution needs to work at the local level um no one size fit all we need to have granular also scalable Solutions but we need to tailor to the local needs like it was mentioned also given the uh other policies that need to be uh taken into consideration so the place-based approach of cohesion policy is key to Target these Investments to the local needs the

[92:08] second uh way in which cohesion policy plays a key role is via the uh EU grants that can be available and um Can constitute that public support needed to Der risk Investments and to bring also the private uh investment private sector in uh so financial instruments as it was mentioned uh play a smart role in this and at eiib we are already working very closely with the European Commission on new models of financial instruments for

[92:39] the housing sector to maximize the blending of the different sources of funds including from the EU um IB National promotional Banks uh Etc we have uh been doing this very um efficient ently uh in the past in sectors like Energy Efficiency and uh we think that it's high time to do this for the housing sector as well and the last reflection is that cohesion policy um can also help us expand the support to other areas in the EU for instance where the regulatory Frameworks are not yet in place and where we can provide technical

[93:13] assistance uh to to these uh cities or regions or member states because we need to also help build capacities uh there where currently it's not uh the not in place and we have been providing support to cities in Croatia lvia also czechia and and Slovakia and we can do much more also we had the portal that was launched at the ab Group Forum uh together with European commission part of the action plan for housing a portal that wants to group all the support available for more homes and and Better Homes um thank you very

[93:50] much thank you and now we will now and move on to the second session entitled improving access to adequate decent and affordable housing for all and first I would like to give the floor to miss Alina bratu to share her experience as an AR architect on the needs for affordable housing Madame ratu is a Romanian National expert dear colleagues please be respectful and if you have have to

[94:25] leave do it quietly as Chief Architect of sector two of the municipality of Bucharest she coordinated the activities of the development of the zonal urban plan and the integrated Urban Development strategy of sector 2 madame you have now the floor for maximum 10 minutes and people who have to leave please leave

[94:59] the room you can chitchat outside please we respect our guests here and we are running out of time 30 minutes late already just for the transparency and now Madame please the floor is yours 10 minutes thank

[95:30] you ladies and gentlemen members of the European Parliament dear guests I appreciate the fact that in the first two slides we had a series of statistical data regarding the needy persons and the costs of living at European level given the limited time please uh look at them in the presentation I have sent you but to sum up things we can for surely say that 1.5 of the population of the European Union meaning more than 95 million persons are

[96:03] in a vulnerable category with a direct impact on the need for housing this aspect is in direct proportion with the low average level of income but also with the growth of housing prices from the last 14 years in the cause effect category of the discreditation I mentioned magneti BR Pro bureaucracy and low funds in order

[96:34] to facilitate the access to affordable housing and decent houses we have implemented in the last 25 years more measures based on incentives for instance in Romania we have the first house the new house law 15 of 2003 law 14 from 1996 and the national the N Romanian n regarding housing for youngsters the European uh non-reimbursement financing

[97:06] plan in the programs in Romania we have a series of programs dedicated to young people uh 35 at Max with no housings but also a local Authority which builds houses the national Agency for housing on a piece of land uh given by the local Authority what inspires us the government in Singapore for their strategy land acquisition strategic

[97:41] planning and land preservation for future development the government in Singapore has built in the last 80 years more than 1 million housing units in order to have a housing space for each citizen prop poam it's a public company which manages 177,000 departments out of 85,000 it has a contract with the city in order to ensure that at least 50% of the housings from each housing unit are social housing the US local authorities for Less bureaucracy for Less

[98:17] regulations concerning social housings and I'm speaking of the density bonus from San Diego The Accelerated permitting process in Santa Fe or the tax incentives in Philadelphia social City Germany and Barcelona right to housing and housing plan programs when it comes to the stages for affordable housings we are dealing with a road map the first stage is the initiative of the European Parliament to be a support pillar by mechanisms and common

[98:52] instruments adequate and sustainable we uh invested the European investment fund with European Investment Bank public consortion and private consortion which can contribute by loans with low interest rate grants or by effectively building uh housing spaces and we have a committee group operative and unique pan European platform of course we ask ourselves which are the best the perfect Solutions without any rethoric we cannot

[99:27] speak about Perfect Solutions but we can speak about improvable Solutions based on best practices and Innovation on respecting the decision autonomy of each member states on the specific features and needs the third step we focus on establishing a set of issues identified at Point a but also a set of possible solutions identified point B on the next three slides you will see a few of the

[99:58] difficulties and the solutions thereof which can be extended and the depy depending on the specificity of each member states one of the issue is to identify the best for the best actors and we find the public companies local authorities State and companies public private partnership and groups of entrepreneurs another difficulty is related to identifying suitable land for such Investments and available lands we have private land with the public

[100:30] private partnership or joint ventures and public land where we can use former industrial areas former Farms out of agricultural use former military bases out of use and lands that can be expropriated or purchased for public use and the second version if there is no available and we can use uh the existing built residential stock we can strengthen buildings and adding floors if needed we can reconstruct building whose restoration would cost more and increasing the height levels and last

[101:01] but not least converting Office Buildings into housing considering the new Tendencies of remote working now it's difficult to um involve the private sector that's another issue uh when it comes to that it's not attractive the state can interfere even without funding uh by providing incentives such as a bonus or um cutting down on the number of parking lots and

[101:33] other uh urban planning options when the state wants to be a partner it can also have a contribution of by um subsidies or public facilities or um investment funds bureaucracy is another issue as we well know time is money and why one of uh the uh Solutions is the One-Stop shop uh or digitalizing uh um and using digital twin Solutions with um um a single document that should be

[102:07] provided at the end when it comes to the high costs and high prices whether this is the result of the lack of efficiency of certain policies where can identify several solutions for instance centralized auction um with small prizes or uh volunteering uh issues or uh persons who provide uh Community work and also uh programs for

[102:38] immigrants we can also use modular constructions as well as prefabricated recycled materials because this would boost the circular economy moreover you can see a few Solutions in order to attract the private sector for instance the density uh bonus uh uh public versus private um um lands um as well as um ppps on private

[103:12] lands they all have a role in drawing private uh um Investments regardless of the option it should be based on uh estimates of the needs and the value of the land the value of the construction taxes the area the number of housing units and so on last but not least using AI as a public policy

[103:47] instrument this is based in the um AI Act and on the study um by the European Commission in 2024 on the potential for AI to improve uh Public Services throughout the EU and it is also based on um best practices in Los Angeles and Singapore The Proposal is based on three pillars using AI in order to anticipate

[104:21] the time when certain people people can end up in financial uh difficulty because of certain um social or economic conditions using data provided by public authorities and then we can expand this uh analysis and anticipate the type of students for instance that might end up as needs uh and we should overlap this with a set of public uh uh policies and AI can help um suggest direct measures

[104:55] to improve the situation before uh the economic conditions have an impact on the statute of these people so uh authorities can provide um uh housing for these people another solution might be the digital twin such as uh the one in Singapore in order to uh have virtual uh building this would help planning and monitoring the constru constuction side the final objective is to have reduced

[105:27] costs for construction and maintenance and last but not least AI assistance for uh potential beneficiaries whether we speak uh of uh um vulnerable categories or other types of beneficiaries we need um authorities to step into the AI era thank you thank you and Now we move forward to our second expert is Madame liia sigura

[105:58] Madame sigura is a right to energy campaigner at Friends of the earth Europe working at the intersection of the right to energy and housing advocating for decent affordable and energy efficient homes for all she coordinates the built Better Lives campaign and the right to energy Coalition both being multi-stakeholders Al Alliance that unite trade unions anti-poverty groups social housing providers NOS Health Organization and City Network networks among others Madam sigura now the floor is yours you have

[106:33] 10 minutes thank you thank you very much for the for the invitation and uh for the introduction um yes um my name is Leia and I'm I'm going to share a bit of uh the word that we are doing um so I wanted to start today by Framing the discussion to steer political ambition ground founded in the principle that homes are for people not profit H but the reality is that millions of families are currently being uh pushed into housing precarity and energy poverty and this is the direct outcome of a system

[107:05] that has prioritized profits over people's fundamental needs for decades and we are reaching h a Breaking Point currently there's 1.3 million people that are experiencing homelessness and for a million more keeping decent living conditions is a growing struggle over the past Dees house prices have soared by 48% and rents by 18% while electricity costs have Skyrocket by 45% and this surging cost is made worse by the fact that 75% of our homes are energy inefficient the

[107:38] result is 47 million Europeans trapped in energy poverty not able to afford neither housing nor uh their essential utilities to cover for their basic needs and here utility bills are unavoidable part of of housing costs just like rent or mortgage payments when energy costs are too high a home becomes unaffordable doesn't matter if the rent seems reasonable or the the mortgage pay payments are reasonable and in in 2023 10% of urban households and 7% of rural

[108:10] households were forced to spend over 40% of their income on housing cost this means that unaffordability of homes is not just a city problem but it is also uh affecting uh rural communities too and the result of this families spending 40% of their incom in cost is that they only have 60% left for any other expense that they have in their da in their daily life it means education transport food anything which forces them to make impossible choices and it deeps uh our our society's inequalities so we

[108:45] see we see that millions of households are stuck in homes that are poorly insulated and ill equipped for the worsing extreme weather events homes that are unbearably hot in summer and freezing cold in Winter uh and these are forcing residents into soing energy bills while also increasing carbon emissions and Reliance on fossil fils we need homes for people yes we need more homes for people but building new homes alone will not deliver uh the to the to the challenge so we we must

[109:15] address uh this multifaceted and interconnected crisis through multiple angles and today I'm here to just to speak uh and then to put the focus in into one of those that is putting the the putting on the spotlight the millions of existing homes that remain poorly insulated in this repair are underutilized that leave people trapped in housing precarity and energy poverty so the the question is how to support and ensure people have the tools to escape the situation and the answer one of the answers is by facilitating Fair affordable and accessible Renovations for their homes Renovations

[109:51] can be a real Catalyst for affordable housing if they are done fairly and sustainably as they can help households to reduce energy cost while also ensuring housing stability and protecting and protecting their residents from displacement and then the the million dollar question is how to deliver a socially just renovation that helps improve housing affordability then well I have a long list of recommendations and uh I aim to to go through through through them uh so first by prior PR

[110:22] izing deep energy efficient upgrades in the worst performing buildings so to deliver lasting benefits to low income and vulnerable household because lower energy bills better living conditions and long-term housing security are within reach if we ensure Renovations are T targeted accessible and protected by strong social safeguards we need a people centered approach because policies must be designed to meet the needs of the different communities Regional households taking into account the needs of both Urban and and Rural uh communities ensuring that everyone can remain in their homes if that is that

[110:57] what they want and ensure that they benefit from better insulation clean energy and improv comfort and to make this a reality we must strengthen public authorities with technical support and involve trade unions civil society and local actors to ensure Renovations are implemented effectively and fairly with households being supported throughout uh the process uh with One-Stop shops and this targeted support will look different for rural and urban communities with Urban um with uh Urban

[111:27] um focused um support being about excuse me Madam could you speak a bit slowly the interpreters get in trouble right now sorry I've noticed that this yeah the Spanish speakers uh we we speak U the Spanish native speakers we speak fast sorry H so yes um okay but uh another key another key key recommendation is um to ensure H that public investment is uh targeted

[112:01] into H driving this transformation yes Public Funding is limited and to maximize its impacts we need it needs to be directed into securing targeted funding for lowincome households and designing Financial schemes that account for different social and economic realities the okay there's the social climate fund ets2 revenues the cion funds they all offer key Pathways to support large scale energy Renovations but but we also need to go beyond topping These funds um with uh with new measures H at with the new mff development but also redirecting fossil fuel subsidies towards energy efficient

[112:37] housing this is also crucial to accelerate the shift towards a fair and sustainable future this is our opportunity to turn home renovations into a tool for justice ensuring affordability protecting communities and building a future where everyone has has access to a safe warm and sustainable home because investing in home renovations mean investing in people in communities and in a more resilient future for all so we've been mentioning affordability a lot but but what do we actually mean with affordability because

[113:08] an affordable home is not a fixed cost is not a percentage it is about ensuring everyone has a roof over their heads that does not geop parize their well-being and to ensure that houses remain or become affordable after Ovations there are there are different measures that we can that we can Implement and some examples uh for tenants specifically are rent CS after renovation or social housing renovation guarantees for social housing tenants so we've seen that Renovations are needed that renovation that affordable Renovations are possible and

[113:41] now I'm also going to talk about how Renovations are wanted because uh there's more and more people across the EU mobilizing to achieve their right to a safe warm and energy efficient home and one Flagship example is loc emble is a Federation of tenants in France which currently has over 2,500 members that are actively calling for renovation for lower rents for lower energy bills and for lower carbon because action needs to be taken to address the overlapping crisis of housing affordability Rising energy costs and climate change and the new

[114:16] energ and housing portfolio presents once in a generation opportunity to transform Europe's housing stock in a way that prioritize inclusion dignity and sustainability I'm coming into an end with my intervention I realized that yes I spoke super fast H but I wanted to Bro to bring your attention um to the bill Better Lives campaign this is an initiative launched by friends of the earth Europe and climate Action Network that brings together nearly 100

[114:46] organizations and what we do is to strive to ensure renovation as Renovations are a pathway for vulnerable households to access decent affordable and energy efficient homes that don't cost us the Earth and what we are asking is for an enabling framework at the EU level that uh that that helps us achieve achieve this this goal and our key demands are implementing uh an ambitious and socially implementation of the energy performance of buildings directive coupling and strengthening the affordable uh Housing Initiative with

[115:17] adequate and targeted financing for renovation of the worst performing homes and also ensuring technical assist and multi level governments and support for the activation of levels at the of actors at the local level and uh to end um to end my intervention I Al I also wanted to to mention that I couldn't help but notice that the title of this session is improving access to adquate decent and affordable housing rather than ensuring this access and actually this the change in the wording is important that it is crucial that um that our political

[115:48] ambition goes beyond mer improvements as not to leave anyone behind really need to be committed to ensuring the right to housing for all uh so yeah let's make sure that we don't lose sight of our objective and that we take action to achieve Fair sustainable and resilient future and you in the right place at the right time to do so so it's just a matter to taking the opportunity and picking up the right tools to build better lives for all so thank you very much thank you um and to complete our experts let now hear from Mr H Dua

[116:21] senior research manager at the European foundation for the Improvement of living and working conditions Mr du you have the floor for five minutes please thank you yes so there are great differences in unaffordability within member states geographically and between population groups for instance based on whether people have are new to the market and have access to social housing or not unaffordability depends on housing costs

[116:56] but it also depends on income and expenditure needs which depends on public coverage and uh of Health Care and child care cost for instance housing unaffordability can lead to various housing problems which need to be considered jointly there in this framework uh housing exclusion insecurity problematic housing cost so being being unable to pay for other things other needs due to housing cost and housing

[117:30] inadequacy housing problems lead to great so societal costs as EUR found calculated in the past on housing exclusion uh that includes homelessness but also young people living longer with their parents and when you look at the change the increase um in the proportion of young people living with their parents it's very large in a short time um and it is in urban and in rural areas by 2% points overall in just 5

[118:07] years which is large for such an issue now when we move on to problematic housing costs not every households spending 40% or more of their income the EU measure of housing cost overburden reports problems making and meet those with children low income and living in rural areas are more likely to do

[118:38] so now with regard to housing inadequacy private tenants and especially those with low income are at highest risk of all types of housing inadequacy problems which we mapped in our report including Energy Efficiency but it is important not to overlook people who own their homes without the mortgage for instance as well which is a large group at least

[119:12] 45% of all households uh and in 17 member states more than that owns their home without the mortgage and many are at risk of poverty as can be seen in the graph on the right the green bars being the situation in rural areas where this is much more common um they may not make rent or mortgage payments but they do struggle with utility payments so overall in of all households in rural area 9% are outright owners who cannot keep their homes at

[119:45] adequate temperature so they also need to be reached then the home can really not be seen independently of its surrounding area in particular many people especially in rural areas have poor access to trans public transport now we mapped um a broad spectrum of support measures uh on each of these dimensions for dimensions of housing problems um now well they are very very

[120:22] important for recipients they also come with challenges so for instance rent and ownership support can drive up prices they can cause over indebtedness and they can be considered unfair due to non- takeup and fixed thresholds age thresholds for instance if you're just a little bit older you don't get it uh then social housing yes but it scares in most of the member states and even where it is most uh in the member state like Austria Netherlands where it's uh

[120:54] largest there are long waiting lists now some measures which can be highlighted with with large potential are for in of course increased Supply um but not only by building also by renovating and reducing vacant dwellings uh often though they need to be renovated as well uh then it's key to uh have measures to to reduce households dependence on external energy purchasing

[121:26] so insulation or solar panels better reach lwi income groups so they become more resilient to Future price increases and lastly um it is a key to look Beyond housing so also at the surrounding areas and the financial situation of people so with better and more secure employment and social protection thank you thank you for uh keeping an on the time for transparency dear colleagues we must leave that room in 30 minutes and

[121:58] we have still um a long list uh but just for the transparency interpreters will leave and next group needs that room so please be aware of but nevertheless we will now open the floor for our members um and we start with the reporters if you could stick to two minutes instead of three I really appreciate it and we start with Mr Marcos Ros s snd reporter

[122:31] V any report on the role of cohesion policy investment and resolving their houses crisis for the regi committee please the floor is yours two minutes thank you chair I will try to add that to two minutes H I will switch to Spanish I'd like to thank the three speakers I think it's quite indicative to of everything the EU can do and everything we can actually do is necessary to have reforms and we'll have to look at our funds in the future at the moment we're talking about the

[123:05] social Dimension as far as I'm concerned there something that's very clear we've worked over decades with something very clear rules that so what was social housing what was accessible housing social was protected and was uh carried down from the public sector and with the social fund whilst the other people who were in the on the free market and they could afford to have uh uh housing and with the sub and the possibility also of

[123:37] of improving their their homes only from the energy point of view however things have changed now that clear difference between a vulnerable population uh and homeless has become now very blood because the free market is pushing out thousands of citizens who are now becoming vulnerable because they cannot afford housing we've got more people demanding housing and fewer people per household so you need more

[124:09] housing uh with the crisis of 2008 the new building was reduced the speculation in the housing especially in rentals and there we have the whole uh problem of energy Pro uh poverty we're going to have to uh stay see that it's essential to increase the objectives all the funds the regional fund social fund erfd fund have to invest not only in the social housing which is already covered

[124:40] but investing in accessible housing and protected housing um and now we move to EP um Madame Elena n de Campo thank you the problem of vulnerability in housing is connected with the significant increase in prices according to eurostat in Spain we've seen that there's accumulation of 31% since 2018 in the costs of housing young

[125:18] people have no access there's no way so they all vulnerable because their salary or their employability does not allow them to pay a rent in our country so again we'd like to pick this up we're seeing how the member states are demanding from Europe Solutions urgent Solutions when many I'd like to draw attention to the fact that we mentioned Barcelona

[125:51] Barcelona the housing problem is significant 4,034 per square meter for an apartment and that is really hitting uh the municipalities with a a problem here because the cost of housing is incredible and it's a problem that is extending now there's just a question I'd like to ask which for us it's essential though in the rural areas it's possible to make housing accessible housing uh attractive uh Europe must invest in

[126:28] connectivity for instance in transport because the problem is tied to that to the vulnerability if we concentrate other uh population in the urban areas uh they become it becomes the prices go up but the villages are becoming uh abandoned so we've got to involve the rural world and you you there is transport connecting them very uh very on time I'm so happy um Now we move to the catci and here to be fair you I give

[127:01] you one minute um and we start please yeah we saw no who's who takes yeah yeah I know um just yeah yeah just to have it clear that there you have it and we start with madame G EP please yeah here you are one minute

[127:31] please thank you I thank you for all the work you've undertaken this is an very important area unfortunately though the situation we find ourselves in is disastrous looking both at the access to housing and also energy use probably this is largely due to the inaccessibility of EU resources I would like to underscore the importance of competitiveness the and the creation of

[128:08] jobs and the relationship which this has with building housing and then the links in uh to environmental policy and water these are essential areas looking at Hungary in the central part of Hungary this is a drought area and you have to ask yourself whether it's even possible to live there regions need to identify

[128:39] priorities looking at a vulnerable groups women's disabled people and other groups they need to get the resources thank you thank you I'd like to ask a qu question to P disagree with K wi the extreme right is critical in Europe and here we're finding a solution the promotion of uh uh households that are economically sustainable as a

[129:13] solution these are the ones who benefit mainly the more in uh vulnerable families by protecting them from an important as situations such as entity poverty so I'd like to ask uh raor Madame seura what do you think of that type of intervention in this Parliament and we also refer the situation of Barcelona I'd also ask uh colleagues keep uh it's fine to talk but we want to convert it into reality and I'd like to talk about lowering the rental prices in

[129:47] uh Barcelona of 6.4% after having applied the law for housing Spanish law for housing for one year Madame Tes ECR is not in the room no problem we will move forward to renew Mr Malo Mali sorry great thank you chair one minute thank you chair and thank you to our our speakers from uh at this very

[130:18] interesting debate this morning from from Romania from Barcelona in fact I would address my my first question perhaps to our architect from from Romania your your your contribution was very very interesting for me from one area in particular looking at adequate decent and affordable housing and affordable space I would like to know your opinion specifically with regard to new proposals which are now moving around Europe and in Ireland and elsewhere with regard to the density of developments I see a a proposal for a reduction in the minimum amount of garden space homes must have as part of a Ser of changes been sought in our

[130:53] country and in other countries in Europe and particularly a move to a three- tiered approach to residential density with densities of up to 35 dwellings per hectare in smaller towns and Villages densities of 35 to 50 per hectare in outer suburban and Greenfield areas of cities and larger towns and densities of at least 50 H in more Central and accessible Urban locations I'm wondering what your opinion indeed is of that or indeed what the opinion of our commission would be to such developments in future thank you thank you and the last speaker is from the left Madame f f yeah thanks

[131:30] very much chair I'll be very brief many of us here will have experienced in local constituency offices and at the Grassroots level of politics where we see dayto day the struggles that people face in relation to the housing situation and the housing crisis I think it's really important that this doesn't become an item only at election time that we are constantly working to address the issues funding should should be available at the local level through the use of the eiib and consistent access to cohesion policy by giving economic might to local authorities there is potential for them to

[132:00] contribute more effectively with less red tape therefore I asked as the panel agree that properly empowered local authorities are the key to solving the housing crisis and do the panel agree that allowing simpler more direct use of cohesion policy funding at this level can help alleviate the housing crisis thank you chair thank you and now we move forward um reply by the experts um we start with Madame bratu and then Madame zura um each of you three minutes please

[132:36] um Madame Bru you can start thank [Music] you the question regards the denif policy well when it comes to my opinion on this Mongol criteria related to facilitating uh access to affordable housing this was one of the criteria it does not mean that it can be applied everywhere for instance a density bonus

[133:12] there are a series of cities and member states that want to apply other policies maybe less parking lots you have to have analysis and specific studies for each area there may be specific areas where can apply this density bonus which increases the density per square meter in Ireland uh they want to lower density so this is a different aspect when it comes

[133:42] to my opinion every density bonus has to be applied based on specific studies and and if this is possible I think that all criteria will be increased when it comes to affordability of housings including reducing costs taking into account the vertical uh development which will always lead to lower costs thank

[134:14] you thank you and now we move forward to madame zura three minutes please thanks um if that's okay I'm going to speak I'm going to speak in Spanish because the question was asked in Spanish is that okay sorry I didn't hear you I didn't he you [Music] thanks I wanted to comment on comparing the costs of

[134:45] housing in the rural areas or in the suburbs even of a large city the these this housing might have a low rent or the mortgage is less but they become inaccessible they're still not affordable because there's no connectivity there's no transport or there might not be jobs so at that point the truth is that it becomes

[135:18] inaccessible and in order to answer the questions from um homes a household that is not uh energy efficient will never be accessible because the price of the cost of energy is very high and again to respond I answer I'd say that housing is a right and it should not be left to the market because we see the results here millions of people who find the themselves in uh

[135:52] poverty energy poverty and without access to uh housing I think I've answered your questions thank you thank you um and the next we will give the floor for remarks by Madame rud paraman director of DJ ample European commission Madame you have the floor for three minutes thank you very much thank you for the invitation uh to this debate uh I will be very short um in uh in the

[136:26] commission uh we actually the we started the um I mean we have been working on the on the housing for some time uh in DG employment in particular looking at um uh social housing and uh and homelessness uh we have established in 2021 a platform for fighting homelessness and within the work of this platform uh is also the let's say in in finding also is um the goal is to um Foster the housing first principle which

[136:58] means um helping homeless people to find uh a place to live that they can call theirs rather than moving from shelter to shelter and then once they have a living place to solve their problems because usually there are also other uh connected problems to homelessness so this housing first principle has been very successful in Finland we're pushing for it to be developed throughout Europe but of course to be able to do that you also have to have houses in which to um uh formally homeless people can can go

[137:30] so uh and through this we're also working on increasing uh financing um uh notably VI the invest you guarantee which is used both by the eiib and by other implementing partners and notably the Council of Europe bank and the Council of Europe Bank in particular is particularly active on the issue of homelessness um the the housing crisis sort of uh goes down the chain so uh you know people that before could afford the house they cannot afford anymore and

[138:01] therefore people who are before perhaps in social housing end up homelessness so it's a whole chain that uh needs to be addressed the second point that I would like to mention is the issue of the social climate fund indeed discussing with member states it's clear that there are two clear aspects on the housing crisis one is the affordability and one is the the affordability also but of the renovation of existing stocks so no new builds and renovation of existing stocks both are important the social climate fund is a new fund which will start

[138:31] operating this year and um which is about uh specifically about supporting the most vulnerable uh um given the impacts of the ets2 which will start operating in 26 and it is exactly I mean one of the main purposes for which it will be used is the renovation of uh housing of the most vulnerable people so it goes exactly in the in this direction uh having said that I just pick up the point that my colleague nicoa NIS made before that is cannot the problem cannot

[139:04] be seen in isolation but it also is linked to the access to other services like was mentioned before public transport uh schools uh Healthcare Etc I stop there thank you and now we we finally turn to Mr Matthew Balwin deputy director General and head of the commission's task force on housing you have the floor for two minutes thank you very much indeed Madam chair for giving

[139:34] us the floor as a an extra special guest speaker on top of all the other commission speakers you've had four very quick points firstly the commission's appointment of the first of a EU commissioner for housing I think really reflects the seriousness of intent in the commission to address this crisis particularly on affordability and it I think addresses the growing sense that the EU must contribute to addressing it whilst of course respecting the principles of subsidiarity in the internal division of competencies with member states it's particularly welcome if in this house if I could say it that the European Parliament has established the special committee on housing chaired

[140:10] of course by Madame tinali and we're very pleased also that we continue to see such great attendance at this joint hearing I think it shows how seriously this house is taking housing now again first and foremost housing is and will remain a primarily National regional and local responsibility but as president Von Del said if housing is a problem for Europeans it's a problem for Europe so we are committed in the housing task force to support as effectively as we can the member states the cities the regions in any way we can by identifying that European added value we've heard

[140:45] from Nicola and from Ruth today the responsible officials in Regio and employment on the regional and social as aspects of this we in the newly established housing task force will work closely with them and all the colleagues across the commission and all parts of this Parliament to help coordinate the different work streams to support commissioner Danon and his colleagues in bringing forward and implementing the first ever European affordable housing plan probably in the first quarter of 2026 the first priority then for this year is a major Outreach and dialogue with member states with the parliament with the other institutions with all

[141:19] stakeholders to try to ascertain clearly the key housing priorities at the EU level delighted that we're doing this in a joint launch uh of this consultation process with the house Committee of the parliament on Monday the 24th so I'm now doing free publicity for that it's already booked out you can follow it online and it will only be the kickoff event for what I think will be a very widespread consultation for us at the European level to listen and to learn from events like this and to help find practical solutions to the crisis thank

[141:49] you and thank you Mr Bolin um yeah it comes to an end we are in the end of our second session and what is clear that the growing European housing crisis Demands a people centered response to ensuring housing policies that Grant access to quality affordable homes for all citizens I would like to thank all speakers and members who have taken part in that discussion and we have heard a number of policy points and we can take forward forward on our

[142:21] ongoing and future R including by rors of the reg regi ample and house committees as ample Chair say thank you and the closing remarks are from M yeah no we are uh way over time but I really want to thank uh all the participants and uh the experts uh the

[142:53] commission and and and of course my colleagues from the emple and BR committee I think we are uh doing a brand new exercise here so we are setting the ground for the debate and for the policies to come so it is very important that we gather all the inputs all the ideas with the Goodwill to really provide Solutions so uh I I really invite everyone to uh to come on Monday day for the uh launch of the consultation uh this will be an opportunity and please also uh bring this uh to all your uh colleagues

[143:30] stakeholders this is a real opportunity to set the ground for future policies for something that is really important for our citizens so thank you very much and this is just the beginning thank you yeah I would like to thank you all for your contribution to to the debate dear colleagues uh let's continue working together on the in report report the role of the cohesion policy investment in resolving the current housing crisis Guided by our shared

[144:02] commitment in boosting affordable housing for all Europeans thank you for your attention we see you almost in almost two hours thank you

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