The European Affordable Housing Plan: what are our asks.
Housing Solutions Platform Debates
November 7th 2025
13.00-15.00 CET
Online
Concept note:
Housing, and more specifically its growing unaffordability, became a key issue at EU level following the 2024 European elections. In the second von der Leyen mandate as president of the Commission, a first ever European Commissioner for Housing has been appointed and additional structures put in place, such as a Housing Taskforce, a Commissioners' Project Group on Affordable Housing and a Housing Advisory Board, mandated to contribute to a first ever European Affordable Housing Plan. The plan is to be grounded in extensive consultations, including drawing on the report delivered by HOUS, the special parliamentary committee on the housing crisis.
With no direct competencies on national housing policies, the EU is currently looking at influencing the supply of affordable housing through indirect levers, such as increasing and channeling investments through a European Investment Platform co-led by the European Investment Bank and the European Commission, as well as through regulatory changes, like the state aid rules.
However, in a political climate marked by austerity policies that take as a given the limits of public budgets and by a newly emerged competitor to social infrastructure spending, namely the defense industry, one core issue dominating the debates is how to attract private finance into new supply of affordable housing while preventing speculation.
With this event we aim to contribute to the ongoing discussion on proper public control mechanisms and social safeguards in the EU housing policies. To that end, we formulate our asks for the Affordable Housing Plan and Investment Platform, as organisations committed to a needs and rights approach to housing affordability. We expand the exchange to include views from researchers, activists and housing providers on issues such as long-term affordability, affordability for the most vulnerable and non-extractive financial circuits. We conclude with reactions from EU institutions and a general Q&A.
Programme:
13.00-13.30: Interventions by the partners of the Housing Solutions Platform
13.30 – 14.15: Reactions from local perspectives
France : Antoine Guironnet, Centre d'études européennes et de politique comparée, Sciences Po
Denmark: Bent Madsen, Danish Federation of Non-Profit Housing Providers (“BL – Danmarks Almene Boliger)
Germany (TBC)
14.15 – 14.45: Reactions from representatives of EU institutions (TBC)
14.45-15:00: Q&A from the public
