Plan seeks to define new strategy to respond to pan-European housing crisis
Mayor of Lisbon, Carlos Moedas (PSD), has been appointed by the European Commission as vice-president to an advisory board dedicated to housing in Europe.
He is the only mayor to be sitting on the board – a situation the city council believes is down to “the model Carlos Moedas has developed for housing in Lisbon, with historic investment of over €900 million by 2028, as well as a set of short-term actions to support families and young people”.
“Carlos Moedas’ vast European experience also contributed to his choice, having been European Commissioner [for Research, Innovation and Science] between 2014 and 2019,” emphasises the municipality in a statement.
For now, the board has begun its work, and aims to define a strategy to respond to the pan-European housing crisis. It is made of up 15 people, including “some of Europe’s leading experts on housing, as well as senior politicians from various countries”, writes Lusa.
“For Lisbon to be the only city represented on this body is a unique recognition of the journey we are making” Mr Moedas has said in the statement. “In this term of office we have already delivered more than 2,660 homes, supported 1,230 families to pay their rent, and we are rehabilitating more than 400 buildings in municipal neighbourhoods.
Whereas so many municipalities have done very little to address the housing crisis, Lisbon has adopted “totally innovative” measures – such as making homes available to police officers, and housing cooperatives, which have been stalled for more than 25 years.
Indeed, the city has adopted a a combination of short and medium-term measures in the area of housing that “is unique in Europe”, suggests Moedas.
President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen has said the idea for this new board is to analyse all the causes of the crisis, and help bring about the necessary public and private investment to surmount it.
Source material: LUSA
