The EESC:

• welcomes the Strategy for Housing Construction under the Affordable Housing Plan, but urges the Commission to swiftly present the announced initiatives and adopt far more ambitious measures to address the structural housing crisis: the necessary framework conditions for the construction to serve as a catalyst for affordable, sustainable and high-quality housing, a right to adequate and affordable housing in EU primary law, sufficient funding and a stronger focus on vulnerable groups and on sustainability. Housing support must, depending on the case, prioritise conversions, renovations and new builds and promote climate-neutral and resource-efficient construction methods, collective housing and alternative mobility approaches that improve people’s quality of life;

Energy underpins every productive activity and is one of the main factors of economic and social well-being. The cost and security of supply shape business competitiveness, household disposable income and society’s overall resilience. Successive geopolitical shocks have brought the strategic importance of energy policy into sharper focus, placing it at the heart of European sovereignty, economic security and social stability.

The Commission’s Action Plan is an important step forward. The EESC Opinion strengthens it further by adding the industrial, societal and Eastern Flank dimensions. But the ultimate test will not be the quality of the documents produced in Brussels. In drone warfare, the winners are rarely those who write the best strategies. They are the ones who innovate faster, produce faster and adapt faster.

The EESC:

• supports the objective of strengthening preparedness, detection and response capacities and deterring malicious drone use, while stressing that all measures must remain proportionate and consistent with fundamental rights, privacy, data protection, legal certainty and democratic accountability;