On Thursday 3 October, Maltese Socialist Alex Agius Saliba announced an agreement between the European Parliament’s political groups to set up “special committees” to work on housing, public health and defence.
“There is going to be a new special committee on housing” and we will make sure that it has strong powers to tackle the issue of “affordable housing”, he said, presenting the S&D group’s priorities to a number of journalists ahead of the plenary session starting on Monday 7 October.
During the European elections and in the negotiations on the composition of the ‘von der Leyen II’ Commission, the Social Democrat group fought to include housing, for the first time, in the remit of a European Commissioner. In order to secure the group’s support, the re-elected President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has taken up this proposal (see EUROPE 13456/1) and is proposing that the Danish Socialist Dan Jørgensen become European Commissioner for Energy and Housing.
The entourage of European Parliament President Roberta Metsola was more cautious about the creation of the three bodies, assuring that no final decision had been taken. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)