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Wohnungskrise - ein Test für die soziale Stabilität in Europa? Europaabgeordnete streiten sich am Ring
In dieser neuen Ausgabe von The Ring, die aus dem Europäischen Parlament in Brüssel gesendet wird, sprechen die Europaabgeordneten Dirk Gotink (EVP) und Maria Ohisalo (Grüne) über die wachsende Wohnungskrise in Europa.
LESEN SIE MEHR : http://de.euronews.com/2026/04/28/wohnungskrise-ein-test-fur-die-soziale-stabilitat-in-europa-europaabgeordnete-streiten-sic
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In dieser neuen Ausgabe von The Ring, die aus dem Europäischen Parlament in Brüssel gesendet wird, sprechen die Europaabgeordneten Dirk Gotink (EVP) und Maria Ohisalo (Grüne) über die wachsende Wohnungskrise in Europa.
LESEN SIE MEHR : http://de.euronews.com/2026/04/28/wohnungskrise-ein-test-fur-die-soziale-stabilitat-in-europa-europaabgeordnete-streiten-sic
Abonnieren Sie! Euronews gibt es in 12 Sprachen.
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NewsTranskript
00:15Stéphane Grobe
00:33Europe's housing crisis is no longer looming.
00:37It's already squeezing those least able to afford it, renters and low-income households.
00:44Over the past decade, prices have surged while wages have stagnated, leaving millions struggling to afford basic housing.
00:52The pressure is especially intense in southern Europe, where rising rents over tourism and short-term rentals in cities have
00:59pushed locals out, fueling protests and political backlash.
01:04At the same time, there is a lack of infrastructure.
01:07Countries like Germany and the Netherlands are missing construction targets and deadlines, while waiting lists for social housing keep growing.
01:15The European Union is pushing for more investment and simpler rules to boost affordable housing supply, but governments remain divided
01:22on how far to go.
01:24The crisis is no longer just about housing. It is becoming a test of Europe's economic model and social stability.
01:31So 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.
01:47He serves in the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs and is the Vice-Chair of the European Parliament's Special
01:52Committee on the Housing Crisis in the EU.
01:54Regarding the EPP-led housing report, recently adopted by the European Parliament, he said,
01:59The EPP group wants more affordable homes, build faster.
02:03We need simpler EU rules to cut red tape, speed up permits and treat housing with the same urgency as
02:09defense projects.
02:11Maria Ohisalo, a Finnish MEP from the Greens European Free Alliance Group.
02:15She previously served as Finland's Minister of Environment, managing policy on construction and housing.
02:21As an MEP, she is a member of the Special Committee on the Housing Crisis.
02:25Critical of the Central-Right-backed housing report recently adopted by the European Parliament, she said,
02:30In this report, housing is not considered primarily as a human right and as a cornerstone of dignity,
02:36but as a tool that can be used for speculation.
02:39So let me welcome to the ring Dirk Gotting and Maria Ohisalo.
02:43Great to have you here. Good to see you.
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,
03:00that homes are not considered primarily 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.
03:14We 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.
03:26We want to fix the problem in the market because building materials are getting very expensive,
03:32which is one of the reasons why housing prices go up.
03:35But also governments try things like rent controls and all kinds of other stimulating, demand-stimulating measures
03:42that also drive up prices.
03:44Because what happens if you can get more money from the bank?
03:48That is that the sellers of houses will start increasing their prices.
03:51And this is not financial speculators.
03:54These are citizens who have paid their entire lives to buy one or maybe a second house,
03:59and then you treat them as if they're criminals.
04:03And if they're not allowed to sell them, they can sell speculators.
04:06I did not say that only public investment will solve the problem,
04:11but we have no experience of any country in the world that could have solved the housing crisis
04:15by only building more private housing.
04:19No, we need a mixed model.
04:20And also tackling the short-term rentals, which was also in the insert.
04:25This is a key question, not only in the southern Europe, but also back home, up north in Rovaniemi, Lapland.
04:32This is a place where students can afford to live in the city center anymore
04:35because it's packed of short-term rental homes.
04:38Well, homes are being built, as we speak, not only at the places where we need the most.
04:45Why is that so?
04:46Well, the problem with Europe is that there's no one-size-fits-all.
04:49That's why we cannot have one single policy on housing, and we don't want that.
04:53Because local authorities, like mayors and municipalities, but also regional authorities,
04:59they need to be on the front line of solving the housing crisis.
05:04In Europe, we can help them.
05:06We can help them with things like what I said, making sure that the market for building materials works,
05:13changing state aid rules, because indeed we need a mixed approach of public and private investment
05:19so that we can also invest in middle-class affordable housing.
05:24Because your introduction said it was mostly the lower salaries that had problems, lower income groups,
05:31but 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 used
05:42for speculative reasons.
05:43And this is where the governments can step in.
05:46The EU can actually be there to inform the governments to maybe introduce vacancy taxes,
05:53maybe introduce different taxes for speed-up sellings,
05:57so that you should maybe maintain the home for two years, three years, and then after that sell it.
06:04Then 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.
06:13And this is also a huge problem, so that when state is subsidizing something,
06:17they should maintain affordable and they should maintain the state subsidized.
06:23Now, the housing crisis has been a long time coming.
06:26We know this for years, and it has only gotten worse.
06:30Why hasn't been done anything?
06:32Well, because the challenge is also very big.
06:35Demographic change in Europe is very large.
06:38The influx of also people from around the world is significant, especially in certain countries.
06:45But again, there is no single solution to the problem.
06:49What we need is that people are not criminalized for investing in a home.
06:55And often, in many places, their homes are their pensions,
06:58because in countries like Finland and the Netherlands, pensions are organized via your income at your employer.
07:05But many people in other parts of Europe, actually, they buy a house in order to secure income after they
07:12retire,
07:13which means that we need to respect and protect those properties as well,
07:19because this is very important for citizens around Europe.
07:22So my approach would be find a balanced approach, see where Europe can help get out of the way of
07:29construction, for example,
07:30because there there's a lot of rules around building a house and everything that has to do with a house
07:36is regulated by Europe.
07:38And in the Netherlands, for example, we are going slower than we could because of environmental often.
07:45And it's not because I'm against the environment.
07:47No, it's because I want to build houses.
07:49I guess there's more red tape than just environmental, right?
07:52But 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 legislation,
08:07very important tools to tackle the climate crisis, the biodiversity crisis at the same time when we need to tackle
08:13the housing crisis.
08:14So this is really a problem that we are backing in this big, big ecological crisis at the same time,
08:21only by saying that we need more simplification and we need more cutting the red tape.
08:26This will not solve building faster and low quality homes will not solve the problems of climate change,
08:33altering our ways of living, summers becoming hotter and hotter, floods affecting our housing also.
08:41We need to tackle all the crisis at the same time.
08:43What about companies like Airbnb? How do they distort the market?
08:47And we've seen big cities like Amsterdam, Barcelona, you know, restricting this.
08:52Yes, yes. No, they can have a huge impact in the big tourist destinations.
08:57My colleague mentioned Lapland, but also Amsterdam or any go around any big city in the Mediterranean.
09:03The issue is that some colleagues of mine want to go for the headline and say Europe needs to solve
09:08the problem.
09:09But there's nothing mayors and local authorities cannot do at the moment to solve the problem.
09:16Amsterdam has the strictest rules on short term rentals in all of Europe.
09:21So be careful with asking for Europe to solve a problem which everyone actually already can do on their own.
09:28Maria.
09:28But this is something that we are now waiting eagerly from the commission that they would give a proposal on
09:34short term rentals again.
09:35There was one done last term, but it was not enough.
09:38And I'm afraid that the regular people are not put into the center of the legislation, that we are not
09:44looking at the affordability,
09:46but we're only looking at touristification.
09:49And of course, the Greens will not ban the whole Airbnb and short term rentals in general.
09:54But we want to make the local authorities able to use all the tools in their hands.
10:00I bet there are still ways that EU can also instruct, let's say, on the times, how long the places
10:07can be on Airbnb or other short term rentals schemes.
10:12We need open registries of all the actors in the sector.
10:16And we need to really think whether in very, very affected areas we should maybe think about the bans,
10:24because there are these from Lisbon to Robaniemi.
10:27But 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.
10:34And that's what we're doing.
10:35But then also, Europe should not say that you should not use all the tools that you have on your
10:40hands, like in some case.
10:42All right.
10:42Well, let me stop you here, as we're just getting warmed up.
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.
10:57And sometimes it can get heated.
10:59That means it's time for you to challenge each other directly, just as you do in the hemicycle behind us.
11:07So let's get started.
11:09And I'll start with Maria.
11:11All right.
11:13As was mentioned, climate crisis is one of the biggest crises we are facing as humankind.
11:19And good ways to cut emissions in housing are making renovations accessible for everybody all over Europe and boost energy
11:29efficiency.
11:30In the negotiations, as I already mentioned, anyhow, EPP wanted to dismantle quite a lot of these tools.
11:39And you were not willing to have, for example, dedicated funding for renovations in the EU level to really make
11:47housing affordable and sustainable at the same time.
11:52So 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 investments in housing,
12:07there has never been more European money going into housing investments than at the moment.
12:13And that is because the EPP has been pushing this agenda for a long time.
12:19Secondly, whenever we invest, we don't do that with a blank check.
12:22Of course, there are standards.
12:24And I fully agree.
12:25And that's why we put that also in the report, that we need energy efficient housing.
12:29There's no point in giving someone a house which then costs a lot in income to heat, for example.
12:37So we need energy efficiency.
12:38In fact, in Europe, we have the highest building standards in the world.
12:42People forget that.
12:43But in all these rules, in all these rules that we have made and the standards we have built, there
12:47are also some that we don't need and that are excessive, for example, minimum heating temperatures for corridors where nobody
12:57comes in winter.
12:58Some things we should be able to look at pragmatically and not only dogmatically and say, oh, if you touch
13:04a nature-related law, then you're against the environment or climate change.
13:09That's not true.
13:10What we want is to fix some of the complexity that is in the legislation.
13:15And everyone tells us, everyone, the builders, the investors, everyone tells us, please make it easier to invest, make it
13:22easier to build.
13:23And then the houses will come.
13:25No one is against cutting the unnecessary red tape.
13:29But then when it really comes to just building faster, just building lower quality, it will not solve the biggest
13:36crisis we have on our hands.
13:38OK, short comment.
13:39But now your question to Maria.
13:41Well, that's my question would be about this approach.
13:43What we urgently need is a simplification package from the Commission about the rules and laws that have to do
13:52with building houses or the environment around the houses.
13:55So the soil, the air quality, the water quality, everything that has to do there.
14:00And even Nature 2000, yes, the Habitat Directive.
14:03These are things where you can make targeted, targeted simplifications in order to solve a basic, basic problem that has
14:12in fact to do with the dignity of people.
14:13And that is building houses, making sure that everyone has a house and a roof over their head.
14:19And why can you not simply talk with us on that issue?
14:24If I'm pragmatically giving you the answer from this house, the reality here is that EPP quite often tends to
14:30choose the cooperation with the far right parties in this house,
14:34not the so-called von der Leyen majority with EPP, S&D, Renew and the Greens, which was very, very
14:41good on the previous mandate.
14:43And now suddenly EPP has this huge wave of simplification and everything just has to deal with cutting the red
14:51tape and so on.
14:52And this really has led to problems.
14:55If in this house, if 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
15:20and starts talking about the political games here in the European Parliament.
15:24That is a big mistake, big mistake.
15:26Are you going away?
15:27What we should put in the center, what we should put in the center is trying to solve the problem.
15:31In the EPP group, we, many of my colleagues voted in favor of all the laws that you mentioned.
15:37They are not in favor of dismantling all of it.
15:39So stop making that kind of narrative basically mainstream, because it is not.
15:46You will find that we voted also in favor of the climate targets.
15:49We voted for a lot of the important things that you're referring to.
15:53So don't tell us that we want to dismantle it.
15:55What we want, and also looking at the outside world, I mean, we are not living in a bubble.
16:01Our global competition is killing our economy.
16:04Yes, it is affecting how much money we have, for example, to invest in housing.
16:09We need to get our activator.
16:11This is a very disruptive period of history for us.
16:15Of course, we have climate change, but we're also fighting for economic survival in the world.
16:20Yes, and regarding this, if we want to see housing crisis as a real European crisis,
16:26then everybody should be involved as actors.
16:28It should be the European Union level, the institutions, EIB, it should be the member states, national governments, and the
16:35municipalities.
16:36And maybe we should talk about the deficit rules.
16:39And what if you said that housing should be dealt together in a similar way than defense is dealt in
16:45the European Union level?
16:46So would you then agree that we would exclude housing actions from the deficit rules, as we've done for the
16:54defense questions?
16:55No, on those fiscal issues, I even think that on defense it is not helpful, because the markets, they don't
17:01care if Brussels give exceptions,
17:04or they think, oh, no, you can make more deficits.
17:07The markets look at your ability to pay back your deficits.
17:09But the member states are interested in that.
17:12And now many countries are not building enough affordable housing.
17:15Thank you both so far.
17:16I think we've heard your arguments very clear.
17:18Thank you very much.
17:20Now it's time to bring in a new voice into this debate.
17:28And 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.
17:48Housing is one of the major emergencies in the country.
17:53Dirk, your comment, building 2 million homes, is this the ultimate solution to this?
17:59It's a good election slogan.
18:01It's a good election slogan for the French elections.
18:03But honestly, start with one and then do another one and then do another one.
18:10Putting long-term targets.
18:12I mean, it's interesting for the communication, but nobody can live in a promise.
18:17Is that realistic?
18:18Well, actually, in the introduction, there was already a mention about some countries, Germany, for example, a big EU country
18:24that has no proper targets.
18:26This is a problem.
18:27If we don't see where we're heading, obviously, we're not doing enough efforts to reach it.
18:32Can the EU meet climate goals without worsening the housing crisis?
18:38Definitely.
18:39If we decide to do so, we have proper EU legislation on cutting emissions.
18:45The 2040 target by cutting 90% of our emissions.
18:49This is a very good example to show to the rest of the world that the EU is still working,
18:54even though there's a lot of discussions that we should maybe back on our climate targets.
18:59But at the same time, taking all the tools that we have on our hands, as I mentioned, from the
19:03EU level to national governments, to municipalities,
19:06and taking the best practices into use, even though if it's not European Union or Parliament Commission that can solve
19:13the crisis by itself.
19:15Let's say there's a good practice on housing first, for example.
19:18This has been a very functional tool in cutting down the numbers of homelessness.
19:24Finland has been the country that actually was nearly reaching the goal of eradicating all homelessness in our country.
19:31The question is always who pays for upgrades, right?
19:33Does that push rents even higher?
19:34It's a good question.
19:35And 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.
19:43We cannot replicate what Finland has done in all other member states.
19:47I want to talk about young people after the break.
19:50We'll be back with more.
19:52Don't go away.
20:01Welcome back to The Ring, Euronews' weekly debate show.
20:05I'm Stefan Grobe and I'm joined by Dirk Gotink from the European People's Party from the Netherlands and Maria O
20:11'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 from Eurostat.
20:22Roughly one-third, 30% of income is now spent on housing in Southern Europe.
20:28Around 80% of low-income households in Greece are overburdened by housing costs.
20:35Then between 65% and 70% of young adults in Italy still live with their parents.
20:4126 years is the average age Europeans leave home, but 30-plus in Southern Europe.
20:49I promise we'll talk about young people.
20:52They are under pressure for various reasons here.
20:55What do you tell them when they say, I can't find an apartment, I have to stay with my parents,
20:59I want to move on.
21:00What do you tell them?
21:01I tell them that in the European Union level and also in the member states, the Greens are fighting in
21:08order to get the homes more affordable for everybody.
21:12If it's not the first-time buyers, not too many people can afford to buy their own homes before they
21:19are 30 or something more, but at least to be able to rent.
21:23And right now, the problems are in the speculation, in the market where big companies are taking over.
21:30It's not often the people who might own even a couple of or even more homes.
21:35That's not the problem.
21:36The small-scale investors, but the big investors, the lack of willingness in the European Union level to tackle the
21:44short-term rentals crisis we have in many countries,
21:47and the lack of willingness to really invest in public affordable housing in all the member states and take the
21:56best practices into you.
21:58So we're working on this.
21:59What about this lack of willingness that she has mentioned in Korea?
22:02Well, I think the housing crisis is in the top three political topics in every member state in Europe.
22:11So there's not a single politician that is not aware that this is one of the main challenges of the
22:17future.
22:18And especially if we want to give a bit of hope and perspective to the young generation.
22:23In the Netherlands, if you want to buy, you need to have €90,000 in cash minimum to be able
22:30to get on the buying market, which is crazy.
22:34Normally, a student probably has more debt coming out of university than they have cash on their bank account.
22:40So it's not realistic and it's unfair because parents, rich parents of children that get on the market will get
22:48an advantage over the ones that have less financial abilities.
22:53One problem is homelessness.
22:55And we're seeing that homelessness is on the rise in Europe, even in some of the richest countries.
23:01And that the people who are affected by this, sometimes they have jobs, but they just cannot afford an apartment.
23:09How 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 issues we
23:18see everywhere is that in the capital of your country, it's almost impossible to buy or rent anymore.
23:26So you see younger families, for example, going out into the periphery cities.
23:31And if these cities 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.
23:54That is where if you can also invest into services to this person who has probably lived in the streets
24:00for years, then this person can maintain the home and will not be kicked out to the streets again.
24:08And if we just wait for the person first to get rid of their substance abuse problems or get a
24:15job from the street, this will not happen.
24:17So give the home first and 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.
24:33I'm going to ask you a set of questions and you can only answer with a yes or no, if
24:39that's okay.
24:41Can the EU meaningfully act when housing policy is mostly national or local?
24:47Yes.
24:48Yes?
24:49Yes, definitely.
24:50Okay.
24:51Should Brussels take a stronger coordinating or funding role?
24:55Yes.
24:56Yes.
24:56Funding, yes.
24:57Coordinating, no.
24:58No.
24:59Should 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.
25:12Personally, I would say no.
25:14No.
25:14Should foreign investors face limits or bans on buying residential property?
25:20Yes, definitely.
25:21Yes, definitely.
25:22Now we can talk about it.
25:23Okay.
25:24I take this as yes.
25:26Should zoning laws be relaxed to allow denser construction in urban areas?
25:32Yes.
25:34It depends on the set of other legislation also when it comes to nature, climate and so on.
25:40So, rather no.
25:44Rather no.
25:45Rather no.
26:10Okay.
26:10We already have that possibility in the Netherlands in some places and I think you can think about that.
26:15But it's not Europe deciding that.
26:17Yeah.
26:18It's the national authority.
26:20Should the EU allow more public spending and debt to build social housing?
26:24Well, that is what's being done now in a limited way.
26:30So, that's a yes.
26:32Yes.
26:33Yes.
26:33Should home ownership be actively promoted or should policy accept a long-term shift towards renting?
26:41We need both.
26:43Home ownership is the basis for people's stability in life and yes, it should be promoted.
26:50Good.
26:51All right.
26:51Last question, have you agreed with anything you've heard from your opponent today?
26:58Yeah.
26:59Yeah.
27:00Yeah, the housing first in Finland.
27:02It's a very successful approach.
27:04Okay.
27:05And I agree that a lot of the problems people are faced with cannot be solved if someone is on
27:11the streets
27:11and they need simply a roof over their heads.
27:15Okay.
27:15I really like the fact that you want to see defense and housing crisis on the same level.
27:19I really want to see this switch in the narrative in the whole European Union level.
27:24And that final answer brings us to the end of this edition of The Ring.
27:28Thanks to our audience at home.
27:30If you like, you can continue the conversation by sending us your comments to thering at euronews.com.
27:37That's it for today.
27:39I'm Stefan Grobe.
27:39Take care and see you soon on euronews.
27:43Take care and see you soon on euronews.
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