{"id":419328,"date":"2025-02-20T17:31:46","date_gmt":"2025-02-20T16:31:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2025\/02\/20\/roma-bologna-e-altre-10-citta-europee-chiedono-allue-un-piano-demergenza-per-la-crisi-abitativa\/"},"modified":"2025-02-20T18:38:20","modified_gmt":"2025-02-20T17:38:20","slug":"rome-bologna-and-10-other-european-cities-ask-eu-for-housing-crisis-emergency-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2025\/02\/20\/rome-bologna-and-10-other-european-cities-ask-eu-for-housing-crisis-emergency-plan\/","title":{"rendered":"Rome, Bologna and 10 other European cities ask EU for housing crisis emergency plan"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels – After\u00a0the\u00a0postponement\u00a0<\/a>of<\/span>\u00a0the EU housing plan to 2026, twelve European capitals and cities of art are calling on Brussels to hurry up and implement urgent action to solve the housing crisis with<\/strong>\u00a0immediate resources to be found by unbundling housing investments from the constraints of the Stability Pact and reallocating unspent NRRP funds to housing, and with a long-term plan, dedicating a larger slice of Cohesion funds to housing in the Union’s next multiannual financial framework.<\/p>\n

The mayors of Amsterdam, Athens, Barcelona, Budapest, Paris, Rome, Warsaw, Lisbon, Lyon, Bologna, Ghent, and Leipzig\u2014<\/strong>twelve cities representing nearly 15 million people\u2014came forward\u00a0today (Feb. 20) at the European Parliament during\u00a0the plenary session of the Committee of the Regions, announcing the future presentation of a housing emergency plan. Together, they met with the European Commissioner in charge of housing policy, Dan J\u00f8rgensen<\/strong>, and the chairwoman of the special committee<\/a> for the Housing Crisis of the EU Parliament, Dem Irene Tinagli.<\/p>\n

Led by Barcelona’s first citizen, Socialist Jaume Collboni<\/strong>, the twelve\u00a0sounded the alarm over the “growing shortage of housing options for low- and middle-income families, essential workers and young people.” And in the midst of a crisis that “puts at stake the very legitimacy of our democracies and the European project,” the European Commission’s decision to not<\/strong> include the European Plan for Affordable Housing in the Annual Work Program presented last week “is not good news.” The Right to Housing Plan promised<\/a> by Ursula von der Leyen in her policy guidelines for the new term cannot wait.<\/p>\n

<\/a>
Il commissario europeo con delega all’energia e alle politiche abitative, Dan J\u00f8rgensen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Commissioner J\u00f8rgensen made it clear that he wanted to wait for the recommendations of the special committee headed by Tinagli before drafting the plan and announced that he was working with the EU executive vice president in charge of Cohesion, Raffaele Fitto, to double the resources of the Cohesion funds earmarked for housing policies, from \u20ac7.5 to \u20ac15 billion<\/strong>. “We take note of this,” the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo<\/strong>, replied to him, suggesting, however, that these funds “should be channelled directly to local governments and their local partners.”<\/p>\n

But “more needs to be done,” and “done now,” the first citizen of the ville lumi\u00e8re<\/em> pointed out,\u00a0by widening the mesh of state aid to “allow more investment in social and affordable housing by public institutions at all levels.” Putting new joint debt<\/strong> on the table\u00a0through a pan-European investment platform on the Next Generation EU fund model\u00a0and\u00a0activating<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0the safeguard\u00a0clauses in the new Stability Pact<\/strong> to exclude housing investment from the deficit and debt ceilings.<\/p>\n

“Exceptional times call for exceptional measures,” said the mayor of Rome, Roberto Gualtieri<\/strong>. Not only in other areas “such as common defence,” or as done five years ago with the COVID pandemic. In the meantime, “NRRPs in all European countries can be a portfolio of immediately available resources<\/strong>, both unspent resources and savings from auction rebates,” suggested the mayor of Bologna, Matteo Lepore<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/a>
The mayor of Bologna, Matteo Lepore<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/figure>\n

Among the common challenges facing Rome, Bologna, and the other ten cities is certainly out-of-control tourism, which has contributed to skyrocketing rental prices and significantly reduced housing supply over the years. Gualtieri admitted that European rules on short rentals are “very weak”<\/strong> and that their revision “is an issue.” But the point is also, at the national level, “to give mayors the legal tools that our European colleagues already have to regulate the sector.” The battle waged against short rentals in Barcelona by Collboni is one example.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Another aspect of the phenomenon is that of vacant housing: “In Italy, as\u00a0in many European cities, we have between 10 and 15 per cent of private homes that are empty<\/strong>,” Lepore pointed out. While fiscal intervention remains the responsibility of member states, resources from Brussels could “lend a hand” to ensure guarantees for those landlords who do not rent out of\u00a0fear of not being paid.<\/p>\n

The scourge of the housing crisis actually has many facets and many victims: low-income families, workers, young people, the elderly, migrants and refugees, and the homeless. The European affordable housing plan “should not leave anyone behind<\/strong>,” warned Lyon Metropolitan City Vice President Renaud Payre. Moreover,\u00a0there is a political aspect, highlighted again by the mayor of the capital of Emilia Romagna. “The far right, populisms, also and above all appeal to the social discomfort in our cities,” Lepore said. That is why, “if it wants to strengthen citizens’ trust in democracy, we need Europe to make a move.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Exceptional times call for exceptional measures”: Gualtieri and Lepore, along with the mayors of Amsterdam, Athens, Barcelona, Budapest, Paris, Warsaw, Lyon, Lisbon, Ghent, and Leipzig, call for activation of the safeguard clause of the Stability Pact for housing investment<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7527,"featured_media":419307,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25705],"tags":[27626,29059,30319,30543,30544],"class_list":["post-419328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-european-regions-encommittee","tag-housing-en","tag-crisis-housing-en","tag-matteo-lepore-en","tag-roberto-gualtieri-en-2"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7527"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=419328"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419328\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":419355,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419328\/revisions\/419355"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/419307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=419328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=419328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=419328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}