CESI@noon on affordable housing in the EU

📅 Venue & date: Brussels and online via Zoom, December 2, 2025
🕛 Time: 10:00–12:00
Registration link
Language: EN

CESI@noon

on
Affordable housing in the EU – building a social Europe for all in line with the objectives of the European Pillar of Social Rights (EPRS)

Europe is facing a deepening housing affordability crisis. Between 2010 and 2024, rents rose by 24% and housing prices by 49%, while income growth has stagnated. Today, 1 in 10 Europeans are overburdened by housing costs—and for young people and in particular young women and single parents, finding a stable home is becoming an increasingly difficult challenge.

Join our next CESI@noon discussion to explore what Europe can and must do to ensure affordable, inclusive and sustainable housing for all. It will bring together policymakers, social partners and youth advocacy groups to debate solutions for a new European Affordable Housing Plan, stronger social housing investments and a European Housing Guarantee – ensuring no one in Europe spends more than 30% of their income on housing. It will focus in particular on:

• Housing as a fundamental social right, not just a market asset
• Tackling the youth housing crisis and barriers to independence
• Impacts of the housing gap on young women and single parents
• Sustainable and energy-efficient housing solutions within the EU Green Deal
• Combating housing touristification, vacant housing and homelessness through coordinated EU action

Provisional agenda (speakers to be confirmed):

10:30 Welcome address & introduction
Klaus Heeger, Secretary General of CESI
NN, CESI Youth Representative

10:40 Housing challenges and pressures in Europe: Trends and causes
NN, Eurofound
Alice Pittini, Housing Europe (tbc)
NN, European Committee of the Regions

11:10 Delivering the European Pillar of Social Rights: Implications for the right to housing
NN, European Commission
NN, member of the European Economic and Social Committee, member of the Cabinet of Mayor of Barcelona Jaume Collboni Cuadrado (tbc)
Kenna Padraic, Council of Europe consultant, professor of the University of Galway, Ireland (tbc)

11:30 The main priorities of the European Commission on housing
NN, Cabinet of the new Commissioner for energy and housing

11:40 The European Parliament activity within the HOUS Committee and the main findings of the field visits
Irene Tinagli, member of the European Parliament (EPP, Italy), Chair of the Special committee on the Housing Crisis in the European Union (tbc)
Regina Doherty, member of the European Parliament (EPP, Ireland), Vice-Chair of the Special committee on the Housing Crisis in the European Union (tbc)

11:50 The way forward – Adoption of the CESI position and exchange with the speakers and audience
Antonello Pietrangeli, CESI Youth Representative, ANIEF, Italy
Matthäus Fandrejewski, former CESI Youth Representative, dbb Jugend, Germany

12:15 Light lunch