- 6 hours ago
بحران مسکن - آزمون ثبات اجتماعی اروپا؟ درگیری نمایندگان پارلمان اروپا در رینگ
در این نسخه جدید رینگ که از پارلمان اروپا در بروکسل پخش می شود، دیرک گوتینک (EPP) و ماریا اوهیسالو (سبزها) در مورد بحران رو به رشد مسکن در اروپا روبرو می شوند.
لب بیشتر : http://parsi.euronews.com/2026/04/28/bhran-mskn-azmon-thbat-agtmaaai-aropa-drgiri-nmaindgan-parlman-aropa-dr-ring
مشترک شوید: یورونیوز به یازده زبان دیگر در دسترس شماست
در این نسخه جدید رینگ که از پارلمان اروپا در بروکسل پخش می شود، دیرک گوتینک (EPP) و ماریا اوهیسالو (سبزها) در مورد بحران رو به رشد مسکن در اروپا روبرو می شوند.
لب بیشتر : http://parsi.euronews.com/2026/04/28/bhran-mskn-azmon-thbat-agtmaaai-aropa-drgiri-nmaindgan-parlman-aropa-dr-ring
مشترک شوید: یورونیوز به یازده زبان دیگر در دسترس شماست
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NewsTranscript
00:08Hello and welcome to The Ring, Euronews' weekly debate show broadcasting from the European
00:14Parliament here in Brussels. I'm Stefan Grobe. On The Ring, elected members of the European
00:20Parliament go face-to-face on some of the biggest issues facing the EU. Today, we're
00:25going to talk about the situation that weighs on more and more people in Europe, the housing
00:30crisis. Europe's housing crisis is no longer looming. It's already squeezing those least
00:39able to afford it, renters and low-income households. Over the past decade, prices have surged while
00:47wages have stagnated, leaving millions struggling to afford basic housing. The pressure is especially
00:54intense in Southern Europe, where rising rents over tourism and short-term rentals in cities
00:59have pushed locals out, fueling protests and political backlash. At the same time, there
01:05is a lack of infrastructure. Countries like Germany and the Netherlands are missing construction
01:09targets and deadlines, while waiting lists for social housing keep growing. The European Union
01:16is pushing for more investment and simpler rules to boost affordable housing supply, but governments
01:21remain divided on how far to go. The crisis is no longer just about housing. It is becoming
01:27a test of Europe's economic model and social stability. So who should pay to fix it? And how?
01:36A lot to unpack here for our contenders, and here they are.
01:42Dirk Gotting, a Dutch MEP from the Central-Right European People's Party. He serves in the Committee
01:48on Economic and Monetary Affairs and is the Vice-Chair of the European Parliament's Special Committee
01:52on the Housing Crisis in the EU. Regarding the EPP-led Housing Report, recently adopted by the
01:58European Parliament, he said, the EPP Group wants more affordable homes, build faster. We need simpler
02:04EU rules to cut red tape, speed up permits and treat housing with the same urgency as defense projects.
02:11Maria Ohisalo, a Finnish MEP from the Greens European Free Alliance Group. She previously served as
02:17Finland's Minister of Environment, managing policy on construction and housing. As an MEP, she is a
02:22member of the Special Committee on the Housing Crisis. Critical of the Central-Right-Backed Housing
02:27Report recently adopted by the European Parliament, she said, in this report, housing is not considered
02:33primarily as a human right and as a cornerstone of dignity, but as a tool that can be used for
02:38speculation.
02:39So let me welcome to the ring Dirk Gotink and Maria Ohisalo. Great to have you here. Good to see
02:45you.
02:45Thanks for the invitation.
02:46I think the core question right now is why are housing costs rising faster than wages almost everywhere?
02:54One of the key questions is the speculation, financialization of housing market that homes are not considered
03:01primarily as human rights, but as asset classes for big hedge funds, companies, private investors.
03:08And then just saying that we should build and get more investors to the market, this will not solve the
03:14problem. We need more affordable housing and available housing for everybody.
03:19But somebody has to build them, right?
03:20Exactly. And this kind of state-sponsored sort of subsidies will only drive up more of the prices. We want
03:26to
03:27fix the problem in the market because building materials are getting very expensive, which is one of the
03:33reasons why housing prices go up. But also governments try things like rent controls and all kinds of
03:39other stimulating, demand-stimulating measures that also drive up prices. Because what happens if you can
03:46get more money from the bank? That is that the sellers of houses will start increasing their prices.
03:51And this is not this is not financial speculators. These are citizens who have paid their entire lives to buy
03:57one or
03:58maybe a second house. And then you treat them as if they're they're criminals. And if they're not allowed
04:04to sell, they can sell speculators. I did not say that only public investment will solve the problem. But we
04:11have no
04:12experience of any country in the world that could have solved the housing crisis by only building more
04:18private housing. No, we need a mixed model and also tackling the short-term rentals, which was also in
04:24the insert. This is a key question, not only in the southern Europe, but also back home up north in
04:30Rovaniemi, Lapland. This is a place where students can afford to live in the city center anymore because
04:36it's packed of short-term rental homes. Well, homes are being built as we speak, not only at the places
04:43where
04:44we need the most. Why is that so? Well, the problem with Europe is that there's no one size fits
04:48all.
04:49That's why we cannot have one single policy on housing. And we don't want that because local local
04:56authorities like mayors and municipalities, but also regional authorities, they they need to be on the
05:02front line of solving the housing crisis in Europe. We can help them. We can help them with things like
05:08what I said, making sure that the the market for for building materials works, changing state aid rules,
05:15because indeed we cannot we need a mixed approach of public and private investment so that we can also invest
05:21in
05:22middle class in middle class affordable housing, because your introduction said it was mostly the lower salaries
05:29that had problems, lower income groups. But in fact, it has become a generalized middle income crisis in Europe.
05:35The problem is that we also have a lot of vacant homes around Europe, especially the ones that are
05:41used for speculative reasons. And this is where the governments can step in. The EU can actually
05:47be there to inform the governments to maybe introduce vacancy taxes, maybe introduce different taxes for
05:55speed up selling so that you should maybe maintain the home for two years or three years. And then after
06:02that,
06:02sell it, sell it. And then one problem is also that when we then state subsidize affordable housing,
06:09after 20, 30 years, these homes are actually sold into the market. And this is also a huge problem
06:15so that when state is subsidizing something, they should maintain affordable and they should maintain
06:21the state subsidized. The house increases has been a long time coming. We know this for years and only
06:28it has only gotten worse. Why hasn't been done anything? Well, because the challenge is also very big.
06:35Demographic change in Europe is is very large. The influx of also people from around the world is
06:42significant, especially in certain countries. But again, there is no single solution to the problem.
06:49What we need is that people are not criminalized for investing in a home. And often in many places,
06:56their homes are their pensions, because in countries like Finland and the Netherlands, pension pensions are
07:02organized via your income at your employer. But many people in other parts of Europe, actually,
07:08they buy a house in order to secure income after they retire, which which means that we need to
07:16respect and protect those properties as well, because this is very important for citizens around
07:22Europe. So my approach, my approach would be find a balanced approach, see where Europe can help get
07:28out of the way of construction, for example, because there there's a lot of rules around building a house
07:34and everything that has to do with the house is regulated by Europe. And in the Netherlands, for example,
07:40we are going slower than we could because of environmental often. And it's not because I'm against the
07:47environment. No, it's because I want to build houses. I guess there's more red tape than just
07:51absolutely. But to be honest, in the report that we were writing in the European Parliament on housing crisis,
07:57EPP was willing to cut birds and habitats directive, nature restoration legislation, energy efficiency
08:06legislation, very important tools to tackle the climate crisis, the biodiversity crisis at the
08:12same time when we need to tackle the housing crisis. So this is really a problem that we are backing
08:17in
08:17these big, big ecological crisis at the same time, only by saying that we need more simplification and we need
08:24more cutting the red tape. This will not solve building faster and low quality homes will not solve the problems
08:31of
08:32climate change, altering our ways of living. Summer is becoming hotter and hotter, floods affecting our
08:40housing also. We need to tackle all the crisis at the same time. What about companies like Airbnb?
08:46How do they distort the market? And we've seen big cities like Amsterdam, Barcelona, you know, restricting.
08:52Yes, yes. No, they can have a huge impact in the big tourist destinations. My colleague mentioned Lapland,
08:58but also Amsterdam or any go around any big city in the Mediterranean. The issue is that some colleagues
09:06of mine want to go for the headline and say Europe needs to solve the problem. But there's nothing
09:10mayors and local authorities cannot do at the moment to solve the problem. Amsterdam has the strictest rules
09:18on short term rentals in all of Europe. So be careful with asking for Europe to solve a problem which
09:25everyone actually already can do on their own. Maria? But this is something that we are now waiting
09:30eagerly from the commission that they would give a proposal on short term rentals again. There was one
09:36done last term, but it was not enough. And I'm afraid that the regular people are not put into the
09:42center
09:42of the legislation, that we're not looking at the affordability, but we're only looking at
09:47touristification. And, of course, the Greens will not ban the whole Airbnb and short term rentals in
09:54general. But we want to make the local authorities able to use all the tools in their hands. I bet
10:00there
10:01are still ways that EU can also instruct, let's say, on the times how long the places can be on
10:08Airbnb or other
10:09short term rentals schemes. We need open registries of all the actors in the in the sector. And we need
10:17to really think whether in very, very affected areas we should maybe think about the bans, because
10:25there are these from Lisbon to Robaniemi. But this should absolutely not be done from a European level.
10:30These are local and national decisions and you don't need Europe to solve a national problem. And that's what
10:35we're doing. But then also Europe should not say that you should not use all the tools that you have
10:39on
10:39your hands, like in some some cases. All right. Well, let me stop you here, as we're just getting warmed
10:46up.
10:50Now it's time for our viewers to get a real flavor of the European Parliament chamber, where members ask each
10:56other questions. And sometimes it can get heated. That means it's time for you to challenge each other directly, just
11:04as you
11:04do in the hemicycle behind us. So let's get started. And I start with Maria. All right.
11:13As most as was mentioned, climate crisis is one of the biggest crises we are facing as a humankind and
11:20good ways to cut emissions in housing are making renovations accessible for everybody all over Europe
11:28and boost energy efficiency. In the negotiations, as I already mentioned, anyhow, EPP wanted to
11:36dismantle quite a lot of these tools. And you were not willing to have, for example, dedicated funding for
11:44renovations in the EU level to really make housing affordable and sustainable at the same time. So why is this?
11:53Well, to be fair, at the moment from, for example, the recovery fund money and also from the current MFF,
12:01which has opened up, for example, the cohesion funds for for investments in housing, there is
12:08never been more European money going into housing investments than at the moment. And that is part that
12:14is because the EPP has been pushing this agenda for a long time. Secondly, whenever we invest,
12:20we don't do that with a blank check. Of course, there are standards. And I fully agree. And that's
12:25why we put that also in the reports that we need energy efficient housing. There's no point in giving
12:30someone a house which then costs a lot in income to heat, for example. So we need energy efficiency. In
12:39fact,
12:39in Europe, we have the highest building standards in the world. People forget that. But in all these rules,
12:44in all these rules that we have made and the standards we have built, there are also some
12:48that we don't need and that are excessive, for example, minimum heating temperatures for corridors
12:56where nobody comes in winter. Some things we should be able to look at pragmatically and not only
13:02dogmatically and say, oh, if you touch a nature relation related law, then you're against the
13:08environment or climate. That's not true. What we want is to fix some of the complexity that is in the
13:14legislation. And everyone tells us, everyone, the builders, the investors, everyone tells us,
13:19please make it easier to invest, make it easier to build. And then the houses will come.
13:25No one is against cutting the unnecessary red tape. But then when it really comes to just building
13:32faster, just building lower quality, it will not solve the biggest crisis we have on our hands.
13:38OK, short comment. But now your question to Maria. Well, that's my question would be about
13:43this approach. What we urgently need is a simplification package from the Commission about the rules and laws
13:50that have to do with building houses or the environment around the houses. So the soil, the air quality,
13:58the water quality, everything that has to do there. And even nature and nature 2000. Yes, the habitat
14:03directive. These are things where you can make targeted, targeted simplifications in order to solve
14:09a basic, basic problem that has, in fact, to do with the dignity of people. And that is building houses,
14:15making sure that everyone has a house and a roof over their head. And why can you not simply talk
14:22with
14:22us on that issue? If I'm pragmatically giving you the answer from this house, the reality here is that
14:28EPP quite often tends to choose the cooperation with the far right parties in this house, not the so-called
14:35von der Leyen majority with EPP, S&D, Renew and the Greens, which was very, very good on the previous
14:42mandate.
14:43And now suddenly EPP has this huge wave of simplification and everything just has to
14:48deal with cutting the red tape and so on. And this really has led to problems. If in this house,
14:56if commission gives something here and suddenly EPP here chooses the cooperation with far right,
15:03then we will see dismantling of all these really important legislation, not only fixes here and there,
15:10but it will dismantle the big picture of our nature protection climate actions here.
15:15So what we see is that my colleague moves away from solving the problem for people and starts
15:21talking about the political games here in the European Parliament. That is a big mistake, big mistake.
15:26Are you going away? What we should put in the center, what we should put in the center is trying
15:30to
15:30solve the problem. In the EPP group, many of my colleagues voted in favor of all the laws that you
15:36mentioned. They are not in favor of dismantling all of it. So stop making stop making that kind of
15:42narrative basically mainstream because it is not. You will find that we voted also in favor of the
15:48climate targets. We voted for a lot of the important things that you're referring to. So don't
15:53tell us that we want to dismantle it. What we want and also looking at the outside world. I mean,
15:58we are not living in a bubble. Our global competition is killing our economy. Yes, it is affecting how much
16:06money we have, for example, to invest in housing. We need to get our activator. This is a very disruptive
16:12period of history for us. Of course, we have climate change, but we're also fighting for economic survival in
16:19the world. Yes. And regarding this, if we want to see a housing crisis as a real European crisis, then
16:26everybody should be involved as actors. It should be the European Union level, the institutions, EIB. It should
16:32be the member states, national governments and the municipalities. And maybe we should talk about the deficit
16:38rules. And what if you said that housing should be dealt together in a similar way than defense is dealt
16:45in the
16:45European Union level? So would you then agree that we would exclude housing actions from the deficit
16:52rules as we've done for the defense questions? No, on those fiscal issues, I even think that on defense,
16:58it is not helpful because the markets, they don't care if Brussels give exceptions or they think, oh,
17:05no, you can make you can make more deficits. The markets look at your ability to pay back. But the
17:10member states
17:10are interested in that. And now many countries are not building enough affordable housing. Thank you
17:15both so far. I think we've heard your arguments very clear. Thank you very much. Now it's time to bring
17:22in a new voice into this debate. And here we'd like to bring in French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu.
17:32In January, during a press conference on France's national plan to address the housing crisis, he said this,
17:39I have no doubt that we will be closely watched for our collective ability to succeed and deliver 2 million
17:46homes by 2030. Housing is one of the major emergencies in the country. Dirk, your comment, building 2 million
17:56homes. Is this the ultimate solution? It's a good election slogan. It's a good election. For the French elections.
18:03Yeah. But honestly, start with one and then do another one and then do another one. Yeah. Yeah.
18:10Putting putting putting long term targets. I mean, it's interesting for the communication,
18:14but nobody can live in a promise. Is that is that realistic? Well, actually, in the introduction,
18:20there was already a mention about some countries, Germany, for example, a big EU country that has no
18:25proper targets. This is a problem. If we don't see where we're heading, obviously, we're not doing enough
18:31efforts to reach. Yeah. Can the EU meet climate goals without worsening the housing crisis?
18:38Definitely. If we decide to do so, we have proper EU legislation on cutting emissions,
18:45the 2040 target by cutting 90 percent of our emissions. This is a very good example to show to
18:51the rest of the world that EU is still working, even though there's a lot of discussions that we should
18:57maybe back on our climate targets. But at the same time, taking all the tools that we have on our
19:02hands,
19:02as I mentioned, from the EU level to national governments to municipalities and taking the best
19:07practices into use, even though if it's not European Union or Parliament Commission that can solve the
19:13crisis by itself. Let's say there's a good practice on housing first, for example. This has been a very
19:19functional tool in cutting down the numbers of homelessness. Finland has been the country that
19:25actually was nearly reaching the goal of eradicating all homelessness in our country.
19:31The question is always who pays for upgrades, right? Does that push rents even higher?
19:34It's a good question. And I agree that the approach in Finland has been very interesting and successful.
19:40But Finland is also one of the richest countries in the world. We cannot replicate what Finland has done
19:46in all other member states. I want to talk about young people after the break. We'll be back with
19:51more. Don't go away.
20:01Welcome back to The Ring, Euronews' weekly debate show. I'm Stefan Grobe and I'm joined by Dirk Gotink from
20:08the European People's Party from the Netherlands and Maria O'Hisalo from the Greens from Finland.
20:14In this edition, our guests are debating Europe's housing crisis and I'd like to bring in some numbers
20:21from Eurostat. Roughly one-third, 30% of income is now spent on housing in Southern Europe. Around 80%
20:29of low-income households in Greece are overburdened by housing costs. Then between 65 and 70% of young
20:38adults in Italy still live with their parents. 26 years is the average age Europeans leave home,
20:46but 30 plus in Southern Europe. I promise we talk about young people. They are under pressure for
20:54various reasons here. What do you tell them when they say, I can't find an apartment, I have to stay
20:59with my parents, I want to move on. What do you tell them?
21:02I tell them that in the European Union level and also in the member states, the Greens are fighting
21:07in order to get the homes more affordable for everybody. If it's not the first-time buyers,
21:14not too many people can afford to buy their own homes before they are 30 or something more, but at
21:22least to be able to rent. And right now, the problems are in the speculation in the market where big
21:29companies are taking over. It's not often the people who might own even couple of or even more
21:34homes. That's not the problem. The small scale investors, but the big investors, the lack of
21:41willingness in the European Union level to tackle the short-term rentals crisis we have in many
21:46countries and the lack of willingness to really invest in public, really public affordable housing in
21:55all the member states and take the best practices into you. So we're working on this.
21:59What about this lack of willingness that she is? Well, I think the housing crisis is in the top three
22:06political topics in every member state in Europe. So there's not a single politician that is not aware
22:14that this is one of the main challenges of the future. And especially if we want to give a bit
22:20of
22:20hope and perspective to the young generation in the Netherlands, you need to have if you want to buy,
22:26you need to have 90,000 euros in cash minimum to be able to get on the buying market, which
22:34is crazy.
22:34Normally, a student probably has more debt coming out of university than they have cash on their bank
22:40account. So it's not realistic. And it's unfair because parents, rich parents of children that get on
22:47the market will get an advantage over the ones that that have less financial abilities.
22:53One problem is homelessness. And what we're seeing that homelessness is on the rise in Europe,
22:58even in some of the richest countries, and that the people who are affected by this,
23:04sometimes they have jobs, but they just cannot afford an apartment. How are we going to tackle this?
23:10It has a lot to do with accessibility of areas with more affordable housing, because one of the
23:17issues we see everywhere is that in the capital of your country, it's almost impossible to buy or rent
23:25anymore. So you see younger families, for example, going out into the periphery cities. And if these
23:32cities are not well connected with train or road connections, then obviously it is much more difficult.
23:38Is housing a social good or a market commodity?
23:42Both.
23:43It should be a human right.
23:45And while tackling homelessness, housing first principle is the key to solve it.
23:52So you first give the home to a person. That is where if you can also invest into services to
23:58this
23:58person who has probably lived in the streets for years, then this person can maintain the home and will
24:04not be kicked out to the streets again. And if we just wait for the person first to get rid
24:12of their
24:12substance abuse problems or get a job from the street, this will not happen. So give the home first
24:19and this will solve the whole problem.
24:21Okay, now we're going to move on. And it's time for our fifth and final round.
24:31We want to do something different here. I'm going to ask you a set of questions and you can only
24:36answer
24:36with a yes or no, if that's okay. Can the EU meaningfully act when housing policy is mostly national or
24:47local?
24:47Yes. Yes. Yes? Yes, definitely. Okay. Should Brussels take a stronger coordinating or funding role?
24:55Yes. Yes. Funding, yes. Coordinating, no. No. Should governments impose strict rent controls to limit price increase?
25:04Show me where it worked.
25:07We have different opinions about this in our political group here in the parliament. Personally, I would say no.
25:13No. No. Should foreign investors face limits or bans on buying residential property?
25:20Yes, definitely. Now we can talk about it. Okay. I take this as yes. Should zoning laws be relaxed to
25:29allow denser construction in urban areas? Yes. It depends on the set of other legislation also when it comes to
25:38nature climate and so on. So rather no. Rather no. Okay. Should vacant properties be taxed or expropriated to
25:50bring them onto the market? Yes.
25:55In highly populated urban areas, if you leave properties vacant for too long,
26:02I would say personally, yes, you need to be able to nudge the property back onto the market. So the
26:08authorities should ask what's going on here. And we already have that possibility in the Netherlands in
26:12some places. And I think you can think about that. But it's not Europe deciding that. Yeah. It's the national
26:19authority. Of course. Should the EU allow more public spending and debt to build social housing?
26:25Well, that is what's being done now in a limited way. So that's a yes. Yes. Yes. Should home ownership
26:34be actively promoted or should policy accept a long term shift towards renting? We need both.
26:43Home ownership is the basis for people's stability in life. And yes, it should be promoted. Good. All right.
26:51Last question. Have you agreed with anything you've heard from your opponent today?
26:58Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The housing first in Finland. It's a very successful approach. Okay. And I agree
27:05that a lot of the problems people are faced with cannot be solved if if someone is on the streets
27:11and
27:12they need simply a roof over their heads. Okay. I really like the fact that you want to see defense
27:17and housing crisis on the same level. I really want to see this switch in the narrative in the
27:22whole European Union level. And that final answer brings us to the end of this edition of The Ring.
27:28Thanks to our audience at home. If you like, you can continue the conversation by sending us
27:33your comments to the ring at Euronews.com. That's it for today. I'm Stefan Grobe. Take care and see you
27:41soon on Euronews.
27:50We'll see you soon.
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