During a CoR plenary debate with Dan Jørgensen, European Commissioner for Energy and Housing, our ECR VP Juraj Droba urged for the future Affordable Housing Plan and other housing initiatives to "respect the Treaty competencies and the subsidiarity principle, allowing Member States, cities and regions the flexibility to target the funds and implement the plans according to their needs". 

To solve the housing crisis, support for regions and cities should be tailor-made and place-based, focusing on stimulating the supply of housing. Mr Droba provided the example of his own Bratislava Region, which is the only Slovak region whose population has continuously grown significantly in the last decade, increasing by 8,000 new residents each year. Despite relatively high average incomes within the region, the affordability of housing is the lowest among all Slovak regions. "The housing in my region is three times more unaffordable than in other regions of Slovakia", said Mr Droba.

Bottom-up, local-based solutions are the ones that work, in stark contrast to expensive, top-down imposed green renovations, which Mr Droba described as "leading to significant cost increases and only worsening the financial burden on those already struggling citizens and families". 

"We need to prioritise housing affordability and stimulate supply by incentivising construction, and, at the same time, revising the most burdensome green regulations, including the renovation requirements, which will undoubtedly lead to increased rents for tenants and operational costs for homeowners and landlords", Mr Droba concluded.