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EU Ministers of Housing want housing to become eligible for funding under the Structural Funds

[04/04/2005] 

The Ministers of Housing of the EU Member States and the Accession States met in Prague on 14 and 15 March 2005 on the theme of prefabricated high-rise buildings. In several new Member States the prefabricated high-rise is the dominant form of accommodation. A substantial part of the prefabricated high-rise is, however, in a deplorable state and in need of urgent repair. Several governments encounter serious difficulties to find the necessary resources for this huge task. That is why most Ministers of the new Member States called at the meeting for more flexibility in the use Structural Funds to enable them to use part of the funding for the renovation or rebuilding of unsustainable prefabricated high-rise. 

After some difficult discussion, the EU Ministers agreed to send a letter to the European Commission to ask for housing to be eligible for funding under the new round of Structural Funds (2006 – 2012). You can read the letter here.  

Housing is currently excluded from the scope of the current round of Structural Funds. The reasons for this were the lack of EU competence in the area of housing and probably also the fear that housing would deplete the Funds because of the investments required. From the perspective of most of the new Member States and a growing number amongst the EU-15, excluding housing does not make sense anymore.  The Structural Funds need to be adapted to the needs of the Member States.  With enlargement housing has become an area for which transnational support is urgently required.  The EU should not enforce priorities for funding upon the new Member States, which are not addressing their most urgent problems.