At its December plenary, the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) held its first-ever Housing Forum, emphasising the urgent need for decent, sustainable and affordable housing across the European Union. The forum gathered high-level stakeholders to address the ongoing housing crisis and explore possible solutions.
Greater use of digitalisation in the construction and housing industry and the involvement of social economy actors in housing provision can bring opportunities to address current challenges in the area of housing affordability and sustainability in Europe. Since housing is not just a need but a human right, a pan-European response to the various challenges is needed, according to a conference organised by the Civil Society Organisations’ Group of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) on 21 November, at which a new EESC study on the subject was presented.
Conference on 'Protecting Europe's most vulnerable through affordable and sustainable housing', organised by the EESC Civil Society Organisations' Group, 21 November, Brussels (Belgium)
In a joint statement signed on 14 November 2024, Baiba Miltoviča, president of the EESC’s Section for Transport, Energy, Infrastructure and the Information Society (TEN) and Andres Jaadla, rapporteur of a CoR opinion on housing, urge the European institutions to adopt urgent measures to get the European Union out of the current housing crisis. They also welcome the appointment of a European Commissioner for Energy and Housing, who will be tasked with putting forward the first-ever European Affordable Housing Plan.
At a high-level conference, the EESC, the EU’s home of organised civil society, sounded the alarm: the shortage of decent and affordable housing is a matter of increasing concern, especially for vulnerable groups and young people, and the European Union must pull together the resources to fight it.
At its annual conference in Brussels, the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) pointed out that the EU must do more to tackle energy poverty and protect its vulnerable citizens. The time has come to set out a clear strategy with an unequivocal commitment at all levels.
The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) calls on the EU and Member States to implement more concrete measures to support the health, housing and financial needs of the growing number people taking on long-term caregiving responsibilities of a family member.
Building a sense of home was the central theme of the annual conference on Social Innovation for Refugee Inclusion (SI4RI), hosted by the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) in Brussels last week
