Tinagli: “Sustainable and affordable housing are not contradictory”

Brussels – One thing does not exclude the other: “Sustainable and affordable housing are not contradictory.” This is the conviction of Irene Tinagli (PD/S&D), chairwoman of the Special Committee on Housing Crisis in the EU, who is beginning to chart an all-European course to try to provide an answer to the problem of high rent and high mortgages, for which the European Commission had to create a new ad hoc manager for the issue (Denmark’s Dan Jorgensen), and the European Parliament a new body, the special commission of which Tinagli is precisely the chairwoman.

“This committee does not work with preconceived ideas,” Tinagli stresses. The course of action, she explains, is to “gather information, opinions,” and whatever is needed to draft the future report to be forwarded to the European Commission, which is responsible for useful proposals to guarantee everyone’s right and access to housing. She does not give an opinion on timing since the work is just beginning. Still, the future report “will contain conclusions” useful for envisaging “proposals” that are announced to be many in number and nature. “The increase in the cost of rents and the purchase price of real estate is common,” she explains, “while the causes may be different. Therefore, she continues, “we want to explore all possible causes so that we can develop flexible tools.”

What she wants to highlight, however, and she insists on the concept, is the possibility of not having to impose choices. “In affordable housing, the sustainable home is the one where you pay less for bills without having to spend your entire salary,” the chairwoman of the special parliamentary committee continues further, aware that Parliament will still be able to do little. “What is needed is a shared effort at all levels,” she stresses in an explicit call to central and local governments for a step change and paradigm shift.