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Brussels/Strasbourg – In January, the European Parliament (EP) completed forming the newly established committee on the housing crisis in the EU (HOUS). Among its 33 members are two Slovak MEPs – Martin Hojsík (RE/PS) and Monika Beňová (independent/Smer-SD). Both informed the TASR reporter about the priorities the committee wants to promote.
EP Vice President Martin Hojsík considers it a success that this topic is finally being addressed at the European level. He expressed hope that it would also be beneficial for people in Slovakia, where it is an important issue especially for young people and low-income groups.
“From the perspective of the new committee, the European Parliament can take a better look at this problem and signal what unites us, what common solutions we can prepare and try to influence the future seven-year EU budget, how programs will be set in it. And that is also based on the experiences we will gain by examining what we can set at the common European level,” explained the MP.
He reminded that it is necessary to be inspired by already proven practices, such as the success of Vienna, which is considered the best city to live in and has an excellent strategy for municipal rental housing.
“Cities and municipalities know their situation in detail. By creating conditions for them to develop rental housing, they know where and how to build, for the benefit of all, not just for private investors, and they can strengthen their long-term growth and development,” he described the situation.
Monika Beňová confirmed that although it is a new political topic in the EU, it is a long-term and acute issue. She pointed out that the current Slovak government came up with a good model, wants to address the situation and therefore prepared a plan for the construction of rental housing.
“The construction of rental housing is exactly the model we could more actively support from the floor of the European Parliament and subsequently from the European budget. We have resources that could support this and the purpose of the new committee will be to find these resources. We see across Europe, not only in Slovakia, that there are young people who cannot become independent because housing is not available in terms of apartment prices,” she explained.
She considers adopting good examples from countries where housing support works as the way forward. “Every good example is worth following and it doesn’t matter which member state comes up with it. If it has already been proven, we should say yes, let’s do this,” she added. However, she warned that member states are struggling with consolidating their budgets, which is also the case for Slovakia, and therefore more help from the EU budget to support housing is welcomed. (March 10)
“From the perspective of the new committee, the European Parliament can take a better look at this problem and signal what unites us, what common solutions we can prepare and try to influence the future seven-year EU budget, how programs will be set in it. And that is also based on the experiences we will gain by examining what we can set at the common European level.” Martin Hojsík