The European mayors' recipe for tackling the housing crisis: €300 billion annually

BrusselsThe housing crisis has arrived in Brussels thanks to the Mayor of Barcelona, ​​Jaume Collboni, and fifteen other mayors of major European cities such as Paris, Rome, and Warsaw. In a joint press conference with the Vice-President of the European Commission, Teresa Ribera, and the European Commissioner for Housing, Dan Jørgensen—both Social Democrats—Collboni presented the on behalf of the Mayors for Housing coalition A €300 billion annual plan to address the lack of access to housing affecting much of the EU.

The roadmap sets the goal of building one new home and renovating five homes for every 100 inhabitants over the next five years. To achieve this, the 16 cities that make up the Mayors for Housing coalition alone would need around €80 billion by 2030.

However, one of the thorniest issues is where to get the money. The Mayors for Housing proposal is to create a new European housing fund and, until there are new EU budgets, to draw on European aid that has already been approved but has not yet been allocated. In any case, sources from Barcelona City Council emphasize that this would be a quick, albeit temporary, way to obtain financing, and that they intend to later include a specific allocation for housing in the new European budget.

Collboni also clarified that it would not involve €300 billion from public coffers, but rather a public-private partnership. In turn, the European Commissioner for Housing has indicated that the European Investment Bank (EIB), the EU's financial institution, could be involved. Another option envisaged in the plan, as has been done for the rearmament plan, is to relax fiscal deficit rules and allow Member States to exceed these limits to invest in housing measures.

Furthermore, the mayors' coalition is committed to identifying stressed areas and prioritizing them for funding. These areas of major cities would have to meet certain requirements related to the increase in sales or rental prices relative to the CPI, the rate of households experiencing housing overburden, and, among other things, waiting lists for social or affordable housing.

The plan's progress

Despite Collboni's image in Brussels with Ribera and Jørgensen, the reality is that the plan is still in its infancy and faces a difficult path. In fact, the EU vice-president and the Housing Commissioner assured that they will "thoroughly study" the mayors' proposals, but they avoided revealing what measures they expect to bear fruit. "It's a very ambitious plan and it's still very early," Jørgensen noted. It's worth remembering that if the European Commission were to end up presenting a housing plan similar to the one proposed by the mayors' coalition, it would then have to negotiate it with the EU Council (the institution that represents the Member States) and the European Parliament.

Be that as it may, the mayor of Barcelona asserted that the coalition of mayors "has already done their homework" and, as requested by the European Commission last February, they have once again presented specific proposals to address the housing crisis in Brussels. "We want to send a clear message that we want to make housing a priority," Collboni concluded, accompanied by mayors from across the EU and across political spectrum.