Changes from report parliamentary committee draft to plenary report

The own-initiative report on the role of the Cohesion investments in resolving the housing crisis intends to elaborate a list of proposals from the perspective of the Cohesion Policy to tackle the problems that many EU citizens and households are facing in order to access to a decent, sustainable and affordable house across the Union.

Between 2015 and 2023, house prices in the Union rose on average by 48 %, due mainly to higher building costs and mortgage rates, a decrease in construction that limited supply and the rise in the purchase of properties as a commodity to generate additional income. Following the available sources across the EU, during the year 2023 for 10.6 % of households in cities and 7 % of households in rural areas housing costs exceeded 40 % of their disposable income.

The right to access to decent housing goes beyond the low-income population and it is a right of all citizens enshrined in the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.

The X Legislature at the European institutions have been marked by the commitments announced by Mrs. Ursula von der Leyen during her speech to request the Parliament’s support. In her political guidelines she recognised that ‘it is urgent to address the housing crisis facing millions of families and young people’ and proposed to support Member States in addressing the housing crises appointing a Commissioner including housing in his portfolio and launching a European Affordable Housing Plan. Among other proposals, the Commission President announced ‘as an immediate first step to inject liquidity into the market by allowing Member States to double the planned cohesion policy investments in affordable housing’.

This is why the own-initiative report is very timely when the Parliament is facing the start of the debate on the mid-term review of the current cohesion policy and on the Multiannual Financial Framework post-2027. Within this framework, the report proposes a series of measures that that Cohesion Policy can implement to increase the supply of affordable housing in the European Union

In the first place, among other proposals, this report intends to strengthen the legal framework to give legal certainty to Member States proposing a revision of the European Regional Development Fund-Cohesion Fund and the Just Transition Fund regulations to provide targeted investment support to mitigate the negative socio-economic consequences of the housing crises. Furthermore, it suggest to include new specific objectives on affordable and sustainable housing in different policy objectives in the said regulations to finance housing shortages, improve the quality of housing and ensure that all citizens have access to affordable and adequate housing.

Secondly, in view of the upcoming MFF post 2027, this report calls on the Commission and on the European Investment Bank to include a specific duration criteria involving investment in affordable and sustainable housing infrastructures in the Cohesion policy Funds.

In conclusion, in both steps, during the mid-term review or during the MFF post 2027, the European Union must ensure that housing projects benefiting from EU Funds will remain in the channel of European public housing stock.

This report seeks to guarantee that cohesion policy investments tackle the EU crisis on affordable housing, delivering on the main objectives of the Cohesion Policy as established in the Treaties (article 174 TFEU) and the principles enshrined on the Article 3 of the Treaty on the European Union (TEU): to ‘promote economic, social and territorial cohesion, and solidarity among Member States’.