Housing must be treated as a fundamental right, ensuring decent and sustainable accommodation for all Europeans, including young people and vulnerable groups.

This is the strong call put forward by the EESC’s Housing Forum, held for the first time at the December plenary session on 5 December 2024. The debate saw the participation of prominent speakers and the adoption of an opinion on the subject.

Following the appointment of Dan Jørgensen as Commissioner for energy and housing, the EESC President Oliver Röpke welcomed the historic decision to create a specific portfolio on housing within the new Commission. Mr Röpke said: ‘Housing is a fundamental right, not a privilege, and we cannot accept the exclusion of vulnerable populations from this essential need. As we confront a severe housing crisis affecting almost every Member State, I emphasise the urgent need to ensure that affordable, sustainable and decent housing becomes a reality for all.’

Calling for a new outlook that sees housing as vital infrastructure for society, on a par with health and education, Bent Madsen, President of Housing Europe, said: ‘We welcome the sentiment from the new housing Commissioner when he said that our approach should be based on values, rules and investment. We are ready as a public cooperative and as social housing providers to show the way to deliver the homes our people and our societies need.’

In the opinion Social housing in the EU – decent, sustainable and affordable, drafted by Thomas Kattnig and Rudolf Kolbe, the EESC recognises there has been a market failure in housing. This must be dealt with by improving framework conditions such as data, coordination, approval procedures and land use planning rules, establishing a fundamental right to housing, providing sufficient funding, implementing the ‘housing first’ approach for homeless people and focusing more on sustainability and the needs of young people. (mp)