As part of the European advocacy strategy on housing and to follow up on the proposals set out in the letter that ten mayors sent to Ursula von der Leyen last December, on 20 February, the Mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni, together with other mayors from across Europe representing nearly 15 million people, held a series of high-level meetings with representatives of European institutions.

These meetings, held under the Mayors for Housing initiative, also provided an opportunity to present the joint declaration “Key requests – Mayors for Housing”, underscoring the vital role of cities in tackling the housing crisis and calling for urgent, decisive action from the European institutions in this area. The Mayor of Athens, Haris Doukas; the Mayor of Bologna, Matteo Lepore; the Mayor of Budapest, Gergely Karácsony; the Mayor of Leipzig, Burkhard Jung; the Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, and the Mayor of Rome, Roberto Gualtieri, also took part. Senior representatives from Amsterdam, Ghent and Warsaw were also present, along with the Vice-President for Housing and Urban Policy of the Lyon Metropolis, Renaud Payre, and Lisbon’s Councillor for Housing, Filipa Roseta.

The points set out in the declaration are:

1. Enhancing the role of cities in shaping and implementing the EU housing agenda.
2. Ensuring effective and efficient access to EU funding.
3. Increasing housing investment opportunities for cities.
4. Enabling broader investments in affordable and social housing.
5. Integrating equity and social cohesion considerations into European programmes targeting the energy transition of the existing housing stock.
6. Strengthening an EU-level regulation on short-term rental housing stock.

Meetings with senior officials on housing. The mayors involved in Mayors for Housing met with the European Commissioner for Energy and Housing, Dan Jorgensen, and also held a brief meeting with Vice-President of the European Commission, Teresa Ribera. They likewise met with MEP Irene Tinagli, Chair of the European Parliament’s Special Committee on the Housing Crisis. These meetings served to convey the cities’ messages and demands regarding access to housing, and to present the Mayors for Housing Declaration.

Plenary session of the European Committee of the Regions. As a member of the Committee of the Regions, Mayor Collboni took part in its plenary session, where he advocated for a rights-based model as a solution to the housing crisis. In the current term of the Committee, Collboni is the rapporteur for the Opinion on the role of cities in the EU Affordable Housing Plan, which is scheduled to be voted on during the plenary session on 14 and 15 May.

Address at the European Parliament. Mayor Collboni called for a stronger regulatory framework to combat property speculation and for direct access for cities to EU funding. He spoke at the public hearing on the regulation on short-term rentals: “Housing Rentals in the Internal Market and Protection of Consumers”, held by the European Parliament’s Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection. The Mayor of Madrid and the Secretary General of Housing Europe were also among the participants.

Meeting with the Vice-President of the European Commission. Jaume Collboni held a bilateral meeting with Teresa Ribera, Vice-President for a Clean, Just and Competitive Transition and Commissioner for Competition at the European Commission, to present Barcelona’s housing demands and to highlight the Mayors for Housing alliance as a way of strengthening the influence of local authorities on housing policy.