On Wednesday 14 May, the S&D Group in the European Parliament proposed regulating short-term tourist accommodation across the EU when it presented a study it had commissioned. The study, which is similar to a legislative proposal, aims to close the regulatory loopholes in the sector, which give rise to a number of problems: housing shortages, rising rents, displacement of residents, online discrimination and a lack of health and safety measures for consumers.
Spanish MEP Laura Ballarin has called the regulation on data collection and sharing relating to short-term accommodation rental services, adopted in spring 2024 (see EUROPE 13361/22), inadequate. It provides access to more data and therefore greater transparency on short-term rentals, but does not constitute a legal framework. She is calling for greater coherence and harmonisation at European level, but with a degree of subsidiarity to respect local situations.
According to Vassilis Hatzopoulos, Professor of EU Law and Policy at Athens’ Panteion University, who conducted the study, the sector is highly fragmented. While in some towns these properties are mainly owned by private individuals, in others they are largely owned by professionals. The idea of the text would therefore be to distinguish between professionals, who should be subject to stricter rules, and non-professionals. To do this, he has developed three criteria: the number of nights offered, the number of units owned and whether or not the property is a primary residence.
Read the study: https://aeur.eu/f/gto (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)