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Crisis de la vivienda: ¿Una prueba para la estabilidad social europea?
En esta nueva edición de The Ring, emitida desde el Parlamento Europeo en Bruselas, los eurodiputados Dirk Gotink (PPE) y Maria Ohisalo (Verdes) se enfrentan cara a cara sobre la creciente crisis de la vivienda en Europa.
MÁS INFORMACIÓN : http://es.euronews.com/2026/04/28/crisis-de-la-vivienda-una-prueba-para-la-estabilidad-social-europea-choque-de-eurodiputado
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En esta nueva edición de The Ring, emitida desde el Parlamento Europeo en Bruselas, los eurodiputados Dirk Gotink (PPE) y Maria Ohisalo (Verdes) se enfrentan cara a cara sobre la creciente crisis de la vivienda en Europa.
MÁS INFORMACIÓN : http://es.euronews.com/2026/04/28/crisis-de-la-vivienda-una-prueba-para-la-estabilidad-social-europea-choque-de-eurodiputado
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00:08Hola y bienvenidos a The Ring, Euronews' weekly debate show broadcasting from the European Parliament here in Brussels.
00:16I'm Stefan Grobe.
00:17On The Ring, elected members of the European Parliament go face-to-face on some of the biggest issues facing
00:23the EU.
00:24Today, we're going to talk about the situation that weighs on more and more people in Europe, the housing crisis.
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, overtourism and short-term rentals in cities have pushed
01:00locals 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.
01:20But governments remain divided on how far to go.
01:24The crisis is no longer just about housing.
01:26It is becoming a test of Europe's economic model and social stability.
01:31So who should pay to fix it?
01:32And how?
01:36A lot to unpack here for our contenders.
01:39And 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, but as
02:36a tool that can be used for speculation.
02:39So, let me welcome to the ring, Dirk Gotink 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, that homes are not considered primarily as human
03:02rights,
03:03but 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.
03:18But 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 that also drive
03:43up prices.
03:44Because what happens if you can get more money from the bank, that is, that the sellers of houses will
03:50start 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, 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 by only
04:16building more private housing.
04:19No, we need a mixed model and 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 because it's packed of short
04:37-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, they need to be on the front line of
05:02solving 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, changing
05:14state aid rules.
05:15Because, indeed, we need a mixed approach of public and private investment so that we can also invest in middle
05:22-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, maybe introduce different taxes for
05:55speed-up sellings,
05:57so that you should maybe maintain the home for two years or three years, and then after that sell it.
06:03Then one problem is also that when we then state subsidize affordable housing, after 20, 30 years, these homes are
06:11actually sold into the market.
06:13And this is also a huge problem, so that when state is subsidizing something, they should maintain affordable and they
06:20should maintain the state subsidized.
06:23The 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.
06:54And often, in many places, their homes are their pensions, because in countries like Finland and the Netherlands, pensions are
07:02organized 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, because this is very important for citizens
07:21around 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 are 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?
07:53But 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.
08:25This 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,
09:43that we are not looking at the affordability, but we're only looking at touristification.
09:48And of course, the Greens will not ban the whole Airbnb and short-term rentals in general.
09:55But 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,
10:05how long the places can 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 here.
10:35So Europe should not say that you should not use all the tools that you have on your hands, like
10:40in some cases.
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,
10:54where members ask each other 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 start with Maria.
11:11All right.
11:13As was mentioned, climate crisis is one of the biggest crises we are facing as humankind.
11:18And good ways to cut emissions in housing are making renovations accessible for everybody all over Europe
11:27and boost energy efficiency.
11:30In the negotiations, as I already mentioned,
11:34anyhow, 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
11:46to really make housing 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,
12:47there are also some that we don't need and that are excessive.
12:52For example, minimum heating temperatures for corridors where nobody comes in winter.
12:58Some things we should be able to look at pragmatically and not only dogmatically and say,
13:03oh, if you touch a 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.
13:14And 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.
13:29But then when it really comes to just building faster, just building lower quality,
13:35it will not solve the biggest crisis we have on our hands.
13:38Okay.
13:38Short 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
13:51that have to do with 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 simplifications in order to solve a basic, basic problem
14:11that 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.
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
14:30tends to choose 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,
14:39which was very, very good on the previous mandate.
14:43And now suddenly EPP has this huge wave of simplification and everything just has to deal with
14:50cutting the red tape and so on.
14:52And this really has led to problems if, in this house, if commission gives something here
14:58and suddenly EPP here chooses the cooperation with far-right,
15:03then we will see dismantling of all these really important legislation,
15:08not only fixes here and there, but 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.
15:25Big mistake.
15:26Are you going away?
15:27What we should put at the centre, what we should put at the centre is trying to solve the problem.
15:31In the EPP group, many of my colleagues voted in favour of all the laws that you mentioned.
15:37They are not in favour 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 favour of the climate targets.
15:49We voted for a lot of the important things that you're referring to.
15:52So don't tell us that we want to dismantle it, what we want, and also looking at the outside world.
15:58I 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, then everybody should be
16:27involved as actors.
16:28It should be the European Union level, the institutions, EIB.
16:31It should be the member states, national governments and the municipalities.
16:36And maybe we should talk about the deficit rules.
16:38And what if you said that housing should be dealt together in a similar way than defence 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
16:54defence questions?
16:55No, on those fiscal issues, I even think that on defence it is not helpful, because the markets, they don't
17:01care if Brussels give exceptions or 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.
17:27And 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.
17:52Dirk, your comment, building 2 million homes.
17:57Is this the ultimate solution?
17:59It's a good election slogan.
18:01It's a good election.
18:02For 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.
18:14But nobody can live in a promise.
18:17Is that realistic?
18:18Well, actually, in the introduction, there was already a mention about some countries.
18:23Germany, for example, a big EU country that 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, and taking the best practices into use.
19:08Even though if it's not European Union or Parliament Commission that can solve the crisis by itself, let's say there's
19:16a 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?
19:34That'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.
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. Don'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.
20:18And I'd like to bring in some numbers from Eurostat.
20:23Roughly 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.
20:58I have to stay with my parents. I want to move on.
21:01What 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.
21:21But 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, really public affordable housing in all the member states and
21:56take the best practices into you.
21:57So we were working on this.
21:59What about this lack of willingness that she is?
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, you need to have, if you want to buy, you need to have 90,000 euros in
22:28cash minimum to be able to 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.
24:51Should Brussels take a stronger coordinating or funding role?
24:55Yes.
24:55Yes.
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.
25:13Should foreign investors face limits or bans on buying residential property?
25:20Yes, definitely.
25:21Now 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?
25:45Okay.
25:46Should vacant properties be taxed or expropriated to bring them onto the market?
25:51Yes.
25:55In highly populated urban areas, if you leave properties vacant for too long, I would say
26:03personally, yes, you need to be able to nudge the property back onto the market.
26:08So, the authorities should ask what's going on here?
26:09We already have that possibility in the Netherlands in some places and I think you can think about
26:15that.
26:15But it's not Europe deciding that.
26:17It's the national authority.
26:20Should 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.
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
26:40renting?
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.
26:52Have you agreed with anything you've heard from your opponent today?
26:58Yeah.
26:59Yeah.
27:00Yeah.
27:00The housing first in Finland.
27:02It's a very successful approach and I agree that a lot of the problems people are faced
27:08with cannot be solved if someone is on the streets and they need simply a roof over their
27:14heads.
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 the ring at
27:36euronews.com.
27:37That's it for today.
27:39I'm Stefan Grobe.
27:40Take care and see you soon on Euronews.
27:42We'll see you soon on Euronews.
27:43We'll see you soon on Euronews.
27:45We'll see you soon on Euronews.
27:46We'll see you soon on Euronews.
27:47We'll see you soon on Euronews.
27:49We'll see you soon on Euronews.
27:50We'll see you soon on Euronews.
27:51We'll see you soon on Euronews.
27:52We'll see you soon on Euronews.
27:52We'll see you soon on Euronews.
27:53We'll see you soon on Euronews.
27:53We'll see you soon on Euronews.
27:53Gracias.
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