Barcelona urges for housing investments to be exempt from European tax rules

Barcelona mayor Jaume Collboni is on a visit to Brussels this week to call on European authorities to offer more funds to tackle the housing crisis. 

He, along with the leaders of 11 other major cities on the continent, has called on the European Commission to leave funds destined for housing outside of the calculations to assess compliance with tax rules in EU countries. 

In the European Parliament on Thursday, representatives of the different city councils read a manifesto urging continental leaders to take up additional measures to tackle a social crisis that “goes far beyond the most disadvantaged social groups.”  

Collboni compared the need to increase expenditure on housing with the urgency in reinforcing security and defense, and insisted on the need for the European Commission to exclude investments in affordable housing from calculations to assess compliance with fiscal rules, similar to the proposal launched by the president of the community executive, Ursula Von der Leyen, for defense spending.

The Barcelona mayor wants for cities to have "direct access" to European funds so that they can be used to build "social and affordable" housing. He has also called for the EU to provide "legal coverage" to cities that are regulating temporary rentals and to establish a "minimum regulatory framework."

The coalition of twelve European cities, which also includes Paris, Rome, Amsterdam, Budapest and Lisbon, wants local administrations to have a central role in defining the European Commission's housing policies during the new mandate that will extend until 2028.

The 'Mayors for Housing' initiative is backed by 12 major European cities, with a combined population of 14.5 million citizens. According to the Barcelona City Council, through this forum, the aim is to create a "permanent and stable" governance mechanism for a "direct" dialogue between the cities and the new Housing Working Group that the European Commission has launched in this new legislature.

Doubling cohesion funds to €15bn

Brussels aims to double cohesion funds for housing and allocate up to €15 billion to the issue. 

The European Commissioner for Energy and Housing, Dan Jørgensen, explained that he is already in talks with the Vice-President for Cohesion and Reforms, Raffaele Fitto, to increase cohesion funds for housing from €7.5bn to €15bn. 

He is also looking for formulas to facilitate state aid for construction while the European Commission draws up the 'European Affordable Housing Plan', which it will present next year.

Apart from the cohesion funds, Jørgensen said he was in contact with the EC Vice-President for Clean, Just, and Competitive Transition, Teresa Ribera, to make the rules on state aid more flexible, to make it easier for states to finance building new housing, and is also working to create a "European investment platform" in housing.

Brussels aims to face the housing crisis by facilitating financing, while there are no intentions of legislative changes at the European level for the time being.