Debate: Decent Housing for All
Date: WEDNESDAY, 4 OCTOBER 2023
Speaker: Pedro Marques
Country: Czechia
Language: EN

We representatives of the Europeans, we cannot be just bystanders on this rampant housing crisis. Let us start by admitting the obvious: there is a failure in the European housing market, and where there is a market failure, there is need for public policy. Part of the problem is that housing has become an object of speculation. That is why better financial regulation is needed. Housing is a right, not a commodity. Houses are for people to live in. Fighting speculation will also dampen the financial market shocks on the housing market. Housing policy needs to protect our citizens, not only, but particularly, in times of crisis. At the same time, we have to boost investment for public and private housing. To address it, we, the Socialists and Democrats, call for a strong European social investment plan in housing. This requires an integrated approach and close policy coordination among the Member States, including by integrating the EU housing strategy in the European Semester. We welcome the informal ministerial meeting on housing and urban development within the Spanish Presidency in just a few weeks from now in Gijón. And we fully support Commissioner Nicolas Schmit’s strategy to build on the ‘Housing First’ initiative to increase the funds to tackle homelessness. And we want to go even further. Leaving no one behind means, first and foremost, putting a roof on everyone’s head. On housing for all, the EU can already support improvement of housing conditions through investments through the recovery facility, REPowerEU, particularly in the renovation of buildings, with the European Structural Funds, InvestEU or even with a stronger role by the EIB. However, ensuring that resources are properly channelled requires a coherent strategy, that is to say, the European social investment plan for housing that we are calling for. Let me also remind you of the long-standing demand to change the EU state aid regime to enable investment in housing by defining social housing as a service of general economic interest in EU competition rules. If we want to ensure better conditions for long-term public investment in social, public, cooperative, affordable housing, we cannot delay such decision as we cannot postpone the actions to curb the quick rise of mortgage rates that are affecting so many families of the middle classes in all our countries. It is a matter of social fairness to intervene in the mortgage market, alleviating the struggles of families like the Portuguese or the Spanish Governments are already doing. But let’s also be clear: the European Central Bank must now stop raising the interest rates. We know that they are trying to reduce inflation, which is correct, but it risks creating a worse social crisis with the excessive dose that they are already applying. Too many families are already at crisis now and they have to listen. Finally, for those who have been saying the EU has no competence in housing, let me be blunt. That’s just a lousy excuse! There’s so much in which the EU had no competences. Let’s remember the vaccines. Only a lack of political will would stop us from doing what we need to do regarding housing. So let us stand on the side of the middle classes that struggle to find affordable housing, on the side of the youth that wants to start their independent lives. That is crucial for Europe. We must deliver now on this housing crisis!