In an action plan submitted to the European Commission on Thursday 15 May, the mayors of fifteen major European cities – including Amsterdam, Athens, Barcelona, Lisbon, Rome and Zagreb – recommended activating the national opt-out clause in the Stability and Growth Pact to tackle the housing crisis in the European Union.
Activating this clause, as sixteen Member States have done so in order to cope with increased military spending, “should be possible for projects in the housing sector”, said Roberto Gualtieri, Mayor of Rome.
He listed other measures that were advocated by the Cities Alliance: - the introduction of an instrument for financing real estate projects, including the granting of European “subsidies”; – the reform of European rules governing State aid; - the creation of an indicator to identify urban areas that are under pressure; - steering housing policies in Member States via the ‘European Semester’ budgetary process; - the obligation for platforms to share data on short-term rentals.
“We believe that the EU should create a fund that mobilises around €300 billion annually”, said the mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni. According to him, the fifteen cities in the alliance alone require a budget of “€80 billion” to make up the shortfall that has been identified, which corresponds to the construction of 200,000 new housing units and the renovation of one million units between now and 2030.
Mr Collboni also pointed out that over the space of ten years, rents had risen by 60% and property prices by 78% in the fifteen towns making up the alliance.
The European Commissioner for Housing, Dan Jørgensen, has said it is “unacceptable” that workers in Europe who work for the well-being of their communities are unable to find affordable housing. “You’re on the front line, you know what the problems are”, he told the representatives of the fifteen cities, which represent “18 million people”, while welcoming their proposals.
The Commissioner pointed out that the European Commission was in the process of drawing up a European plan for affordable housing, and that a public consultation has just been opened (see EUROPE 13638/23). A second consultation on specific proposals will take place in the second half of 2025, before the plan is presented in early 2026.
Vice-President of the European Commission, Teresa Ribera, confirmed that the Commission would be presenting a reform of the regulatory framework for State aid. Like Mr Jørgensen, she gave assurances that she would study the proposals carefully, but neither of them specified which ones the European Commission would take on board.
See the proposals from the fifteen cities: https://aeur.eu/f/guy (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)