EU puts right-to-home plan in the pipeline, more funds from Cohesion policies and flexibility on state aid

From the correspondent in Strasbourg – “Sustainable, decent and affordable housing is at the top of the EU’s agenda.” Words of Margaritis Schinas, outgoing Vice President of the European Commission, who will leave the next executive with the arduous task of solving the housing crisis gripping the old continent. At the EU Parliament in Strasbourg for a debate on the right to housing, Schinas revived the promise made by Ursula von der Leyen for the new term: a European plan for affordable housing.

It is a problem that can no longer be put off because to put it off is to make it worse and worse. According to Eurostat, from 2010 to the present, house prices in the EU have risen by an average of 52 per cent and rents by 25 per cent. And despite difficulties in collecting hard data, the European Federation of National Organizations Working with the Homeless (FEANTSA) in 2020 estimated that at least 700,000 homeless people were sleeping on the streets or in emergency or temporary housing across the EU. An increase, compared to censuses a decade earlier, of 70 per cent. Also in 2020, the OECD estimated instead a total of around 900 thousand homeless people in 21 member states where it was able to gain access to data.

According to Schinas, the time is ripe to “address the structural causes of the housing crisis.” For the first time, the EU will have a man focused on the task: Danish Social Democrat Dan Jørgensen, to whom Ursula von der Leyen has entrusted the portfolio on Energy and Housing. “One of our main demands for the 2024–29 Commission,” the Socialist Group in the European Parliament claimed in a note. Also, a new special committee on housing was created in the EU Parliament.

In the Socialist family’s plans, the plan in Jørgensen’s hands is to include “enormous investment to protect the bottom three-fifths of society from record housing costs,” get its hand on EU state aid rules “to reduce barriers and allow investment in housing,” put it in black and white that “EU investment funds can only be used for affordable housing, not tourist rentals,” and that “public authorities, not investment funds must manage social rental housing.”

According to S&D, “more than 10 per cent of European households spend more than 40 per cent of their income on housing expenses.” A share bound to grow due to the distortions of a “dysfunctional and speculative” housing market. In her remarks in the Parliament, the Socialist group leader, Iratxe Garcia Perez, warned that “the progressive family’s support for the new Commission is conditional” on developing a plan that drastically reverses course.

Vice President Schinas spoke of a “targeted housing strategy” and “technical assistance to cities and member states.” However, in addition to regulatory and planning tools, she admitted that there is a need for “additional resources and better use of existing ones.” The European Commission’s idea is to lean on the European Investment Bank (EIB) and implement “a pan-European investment platform for affordable housing.” In addition, the EU executive will propose to allow member states to double investments under the Cohesion Policies for affordable housing. Schinas also included revising state aid rules, “which would allow us to activate measures to support housing.” The EU vice president pointed out that the Plan is also critical to the goals of the Green Deal and to combat energy poverty.

For Dario Tamburrano, MEP of the 5 Star Movement, the EU should not only encourage “energy-environmental efficiency in housing but also ensure that tenants, especially the most vulnerable, are not victims of unsustainable rent increases or evictions after upgrades.” On the other hand, the Lega’s head of delegation in Brussels, Paolo Borchia, expressed his doubts about the “sustainable and affordable housing policies” announced by the EU. Borchia’s problem is “who pays” to make member states’ residential housing stock efficient. “As usual, after passing sentence, Brussels asks states to make do and invent money that is not there,” the Lega MEP polemicised.