Gordan BOSANAC

Policy topics Gordan BOSANAC is active on

What Gordan BOSANAC has said (59)

• 2025-10-15 “P-004032/2025 Answer given by Mr Kadis on behalf of the European Commission The Commission acknowledges the importance of improving safety and energy efficiency on fishing vessels and encourages the exchange of best practices on this matter between Member States’ managing authorities. While Global Positioning System (GPS) and radar technology are on the one hand navigation tools that improve safety and navigation at sea, on the other hand they serve to improve operational efficiency in fishing vessels by enhancing, among others, the ability to locate and exploit fishery resources. These technologies can function as fishing effort-enhancing technologies, for example, by allowing the precise return to productive fishing grounds, detecting seabird aggregations linked to pelagic fisheries or allow to fish in adverse condition. For this reason, investments in GPS and radar on fishing vessels are considered ineligible pursuant to Article 13(b) of the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund (EMFAF) Regulation 1 , as it is equipment that increases the ability of a fishing vessel to find fish. The EMFAF Regulation does not provide an exhaustive list of measures that can be supported. The type of actions that can be supported are described in the respective programmes available online 2 . Based on Article 63(1) of the Common Provisions Regulation 3 , it is primarily the responsibility of the national Managing Authority to evaluate and establish which type of investments to improve safety and energy efficiency on board fishing vessels fulfils eligibility requirements. The Commission remains at the disposal of the national managing authorities to provide further guidance and clarifications while ensuring a consistent and aligned approach to the interpretation of the EMFAF Regulation. 1 Regulation (EU) 2021/1139 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 7 July 2021 establishing the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund and amending Regulation (EU) 2017/1004, OJ L 247, 13.7.2021, pp. 1–49. 2 https://oceans-and-fisheries.ec.europa.eu/funding/emfaf/emfaf-programmes-2021-2027_en. 3 Regulation (EU) 2021/1060 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 June 2021 laying down common provisions on the European Regional Development Fund, the European Social Fund Plus, the Cohesion Fund, the Just Transition Fund and the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund and financial rules for those and for the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund, the Internal Security Fund and the Instrument for Financial Support for Border Management and Visa Policy, OJ L 231, 30.6.2021, pp. 159–706.”
  Environmental regulation of fisheries · Funding for fisheries and aquaculture
• 2025-02-10 “E-000599/2025 Answer given by Ms Kos on behalf of the European Commission The Commission is currently processing an internal review request under the Aarhus Regulation 1 regarding the Commission Implementing Decision of 23 October 2024 approving the Reform Agendas and the multiannual work programme under the Reform and Growth Facility for the Western Balkans 2 . The projects that are proposed to be funded from the Reform and Growth Facility will be supported through the Western Balkans Investment Framework (WBIF) and, as such, subject to the WBIF governance and decision-making process. This requires that for each project, detailed Grant Application Forms (GAFs) are prepared and submitted to the WBIF. GAFs will be subject to in-depth checks on all EU standards including conducting environmental and social impact assessments, which are important analytical tools to address key ‘do no significant harm’ principles. In addition, the Commission is currently in the process of reviewing the indicative lists of projects together with the beneficiary countries, in order to make these lists realistic in terms of budgetary requirements and compliance with the objectives of the Reform and Growth Facility. The Commission has also requested beneficiary countries to consult the indicative lists of projects with their national stakeholders, including civil society organisations. 1 Regulation (EC) No 1367/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 September 2006 on the application of the provisions of the Aarhus Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters to Community institutions and bodies. 2 C(2024)7375.”
  Climate efforts · Funding for EU Neighbourhood
• 2024-12-10 “P-002837/2024 Answer given by Mr McGrath on behalf of the European Commission The Commission monitors the proper implementation and application of EU law, including of Council Regulation (EU) 2017/1939 1 (‘the EPPO Regulation’), by the Member States. To this end, the Commission contracted an external study on the implementation of the EPPO Regulation that was finalised in September 2023 2 . The study highlighted possible issues of implementation of the national systems of all Member States participating in the EPPO at the time with the EPPO Regulation. Further to the study, the Commission has been in touch with the competent authorities of all those Member States, including Croatia, and it is currently assessing the appropriate follow-up to ensure the proper implementation of the EPPO Regulation across Member States. 1 Council Regulation (EU) 2017/1939 of 12 October 2017 implementing enhanced cooperation on the establishment of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (‘the EPPO’), OJ L 283, 31.10.2017, p. 1–71. 2 https://www.europarl.europa.eu/cmsdata/280160/Final%20Report%20%20DG%20JUST%20Study%20on%20the%20EPPO%20-%2029.09.2023_en.pdf”
  Jurisdiction conflicts between EU and national courts · EU law enforcement cooperation in criminal matters
• “Thank you very much for this report and I would like to say by way of introduction that although we speak about factors which contribute to errors in spending, but most of the funds are used in a responsible manner and in a good way. So of course there are problems and we need to work on it, but we cannot forget that most of the funds are used responsibly and well. And that's also a good message. Many people mentioned the simplification cutting the red tape. Could you say concretely, from your own perspective, of an institution which is looking at documents, comparing criteria and documents, how much space for simplification do you see not to go too far? Maybe. What is the realistic space for manoeuvre here for cutting the red tape? And whether you see whether there are really obstacles that could be cut down quickly. And the second question I would like to ask on, based on the experience of Croatia, some projects passed the review but ended up at the EPO office, which found out that there was there were mistakes in the use of funds. I know that the EPO officer gets many reports from citizens as whistleblowers. So how what is your cooperation with the EPO office? Um, and, um, with regard to the misuse of European funds, do you use these this information in the revision of projects and audit of projects?”
  Accounting and auditing of EU budget
• “Thank you. Welcome, Commissioner. I will be very short. You mentioned that the commission, not you, but the commission still needs more evidence on financialization and speculation. So if one day there will be, like, evidence, and I'm fully convinced. And as Greens, we don't need evidence. And ask any mayor of any city across Europe, do they need evidence for that? Once when this will be proven, are there plans to protect European money, which will start to flow into the housing sector from speculation and financialization? So which measure to be have to be integrated in next MFF that we are not making things worse again.”
  EU housing policy
• “Thank you, chair. And thank you to the Court of Auditors for really interesting report. And dear colleagues, just to remind all of us that now it's seven months after the presentation of the commission MFF new MFF, and what I'm hearing is still a lot of a lot of concerns. And, you know, the time is running and actually we are having more divergent than convergent opinions at the moment. And what we have been hearing from the court, This is not surprising because those are not only political opinions. It seems that they are also fact based opinions and specialists. Speaking from the cohesion perspective, where former past cohesion policy maybe there has been criticism. Absorption was not fast enough. But I think that we can say in general it was successful. Me coming from Croatia, for sure, I can say it was successful because it really helped us in the development of the country. So if we had one successful example of cohesion policy, the question and the concern is why we are changing so drastically now. And this is, I think, the fear that will have to be tackled also by the Commission, but maybe moving forward, making some new steps to give more assurance that cohesion in this new framework will not be lost or will not be beaten by the other policies.”
  Cohesion and rural funding
• “Thank you chair. And thank you to all the experts for really, really interesting discussions. Although we have to be aware, you know, that we are the EU law makers and that taxation is very national based policy. So I'm afraid that in our report we will not be allowed to say a lot, uh, on taxation. But however, we can maybe recommend something. First, my question goes to Doctor Einfeld. You mentioned several times the phenomena of extremely low taxes or no taxation, when there are the big companies are investing in building the new supply. So for me would be a very direct question to you when we are looking at the phenomenon of financialization, when someone wants to make a profit in a very significant profit in a very short time, and this was what was happening on the house market. How much actually the tax policies are responsible to the financialization. Is there like the direct link, like low taxes, stronger financialization? Can we have this correlation? And my second question for, uh, Miss Hourani. Uh, first I would like to share with you one example whether my country, Croatia was doing for years what was a really bad example. And I think you also mentioned it. The government was regularly subsidizing the mortgage, the interest rates of the younger families. And we have clearly seen, for example, in February when there will be an open call for subsidizing the mortgages, how immediately the market reacted with the increase of the prices, because they knew that, you know, there will be some new money coming to the to the to the market.”
  EU competences on taxation
• “Thank you. Dear colleague, you mentioned how you warmly support this report. And you also said that there is really great need to build a new stock to solve this crisis. But at the same time, you are coming from the Netherlands and I am reading the data that there is like 200 000 empty flats in Netherland, 21,000 only in Amsterdam. And this in this report, there is nothing about that. So what what do you think about this? How we can actually mobilize the empty stock. Do we really need only to build, build, build?”
  EU policy on urban development
• “Thank you, chair. Welcome again to the Parliament. And thank you for mentioning the really important role Abe is doing in Croatia. I'm coming from Croatia. I'm I'm much aware of the cooperation of Abe and the Croatian cities, which is a good example. So my question about, as far as I understand, this project is more on the capacity building and preparation. Actually preparation activities to one day to build a public flats. So do you think that the logical next step would be that, for example, we are using the cohesion funds or in next MFF or even now in the mid-term review to transfer the money into the building, those flats. And this is the way how actually AIP cooperates. Very good with the commission with the with the EU fund this. Is this your recommendation also to the Croatian government to do that? And my second question is I'm not coming from the banking sector, but I learned a lot through this committee on banks. I think I learned and one thing I learned is about the role of the private investments in housing. And one possible threat, as far as I understand, and please correct me if I'm wrong and wrongly inform the private financing has totally another logic than the public financing. You are coming from public bank. You have another benchmarks you have to achieve when you work in a private financing and you want to invest in the housing sector, your benchmarks are more rigid, so you want to see more profit in in a shorter period of time. If you don't achieve this, you will get fired. So how actually to talk to the private sector to a little bit, change the philosophy that it's more compatible with the current housing crisis. Not to repeat again, financialization of housing market. Because this is what I'm afraid. And if you have any safeguards you can recommend to this Parliament, because I'm afraid that our report will not have such recommendations. What are the safeguards? Not to repeat financialization of the housing market. Thank you.”
  EU policy on urban development
• “Thank you. Colleagues. When we mentioned Croatia, people think of our blue sea and beautiful beaches. Maybe we've been so lucky as to try the cheese from pag or Malvasia wine from Istria. But a few of you know what Kulen is. Few of you probably know that Croatia has, uh, among the poorest pensioners in the EU. They can only dream of the delicacies that I mentioned. Uh. Some €500 of pension that they receive per month barely covers their basic costs. And women are especially at risk. Uh, we call upon the commission to fight for equal pensions for women and to fight for equal pay for women. And please, let's not, uh, talk about the fact that we don't have competence in pensions. Uh, we have to find it.”
  EU policy on aging workforce and pensions
• “Thank you very much. I actually have two questions. Uh, we have seen, uh, up today that some of the member states tried also to deal with the housing crisis. In a way, I'm talking now from Croatia. Croatian government has done to subsidize the interest rates. So they were like giving the money from public budget to to the private banks, actually to decrease the interest rates. And that was offered for the younger families to use those loans under the better conditions. But this instrument actually tremendously failed because actually it contributed to the increase of the prices. And Croatian Central Bank also at one point said stop it. And now the government has stopped. So my question to you is, is this something which is bad anywhere as a method? Or it was maybe something very local that actually didn't work in Croatia, or this general approach of subsidizing from the state budget interest rate, giving the money to the banks. Does it has a good or positive or negative impacts in general? And the second I was also thinking, you know, you you can feel that we are discussing a lot about the strategy. Should we go in direction, build, build, build or repurposing, renovating etc.. Coming from greens, of course, I'm closer to repurposing and renovations, which is also quite a big business for the construction sector, so they don't need to build to earn the money. They can also get the money from repurposing and reconstruction. Renovation. Sorry. And is there any sense then also to to make different conditions for access to the capital market once when you want to build new or when you want to reuse or renovate to have kind of better conditions in reuse, repurposing and reuse and renovation? I don't know if I was clear with the question, but yes, that's my question.”
  EU housing policy
• “Thank you, chair, and thanks to the speakers. So my first question goes to Mr. Grady. You mentioned one interesting thing that many developers are maybe more interested to invest and build luxury homes, because, I mean, the the profit is bigger, I guess, than, uh, going to build the affordable houses. But at the same time, you mentioned that there is quite a huge market actually now open for, uh, building the affordable houses. So how do you see what could be the strategy, really, to talk with the developers to shift maybe their investments. But having in mind that, for example, experience from my city, when we were trying to talk with the developers to focus more on affordable, they were then demanding to build higher, higher buildings with more flats, which we could not afford that because then it will not be decent housing, it will be overcrowded. So how to balance this, and how actually to make more aware that there is opportunity for investments in affordable, affordable houses? And the question for me, I was I was really impressed by the energy efficiency graph you showed us. So you really made a great progress and congratulations for that. I know it's not easy, but can you tell tell us, uh, after this progress, do you really now see the benefits of the investments in energy efficiency? Because from time to time, some people are challenging this energy efficiency, saying, you know, the bills are energy bills are not going down. Maybe this is not a good way. So your experience on this tremendous increase of energy efficiency. Thank you.”
  EU housing policy · Energy efficiency
• “Thank you. And thank you for being with us. I really also appreciate the way how the task force is present on the committee's meetings. I think this is really the good thing that we are working together. And really thank you for for that. Actually, I will have three questions. First is related to the. Recently, the Commission has published a call for pool of experts on housing pool of experts in housing. So can you elaborate a little bit more how they will fit in your work, where they will be seated, you know, in structural and also political and technical view? Second, uh, I appreciate that you are aware that for now, maybe you haven't been putting enough attention to the local and regional governments and the cities. Uh, we have been listening to cities for a while. We also had a hearing, and the cities also went to the commission and I myself working a lot with European cities. And I can just share with you that there is a kind of frustration at the moment within the regional local cities and the governments that they have, like ready projects, and they are just waiting and nothing is happening. And that the mid-term review, which I think was maybe a good way to try to do something already 2025 is not giving the good results.”
  EU policy on urban development
• “Thank you. Chair. Dear colleagues, I would like to remind us all how sexual and gender minorities entered the 20th century. Characterized as mentally sick people, as criminals and as sinners. And it took us 100 years to change this story. So we entered the 21st century as the ones who are not any more mentally ill, because homosexuality is not illness. We are not anymore criminals. And on contrary, there is a lot of legislation which is now protecting the sexual orientation and gender expression. So for me, this initiative is a no brainer. We have to keep on going further and not allow anyone to bring us back in the past. So my appeal to the commission is, you know, ban conversion therapy because what we have here, therapy is a form of torture. And torture is forbidden in all the member states, not only in the member states, but all around the world. And my question to the organizer, could we also maybe call not only to ban this horrible practice, but also to call for more free, accessible medical psychological support to our public health system to heal homophobia so that the people can really access to our mental and health institutions and get well. Thank you.”
  LGBTIQ+
• “Thank you and welcome, Commissioner, to the House Committee. I would like to focus on the first pillar you mentioned. It's boosting housing supply, which I think is a good direction, of course. And you very well mentioned that for this boost, we will need private and public funds. But I have one concern. Do we are we going to have also some safeguards in this boosting of housing supply? Not to and not to make financialisation even worse, if you know what I mean. And are we ready, really, to finally say that this boosting will be actually boosting of public housing supply as a priority doesn't mean that the private housing supply will not be also taken into account. But really, are we like adult enough so to say to confess that this is something what Europe really needs in the forthcoming period. So if you can comment on that. And just to say, yes, we are as greens, of course we are encouraging you and we are welcoming you to defend the legislation related to the energy efficiency and energy reconstruction that we really think it's important, and it's really glad to hear that you are standing firmly behind this legislation. Thank you.”
  EU housing policy
• “The resilient force is a very important fund. But it is good that we have a decision on debt in order to avoid a new economic crisis. We have learned lessons from the past when we forced some kind of savings instead of investment. The European, uh, the audit court has given a good response. Nobody knows who is the end user. In my country, €5 million was given to build a Hilton hotel in an on an island. €5 million. This is an investment that would have a support of any commercial bank. But we used public money. Why didn't we use this public money for housing? This is a good example of a bad spending of RF, which doesn't, uh, it doesn't, um, doesn't contribute to recovery and resilience. We have to focus on a very smart and responsible, uh, responsible spending of money. Miss.”
  Accounting and auditing of EU budget
• “But still when the when the states try to do something, it always goes to the direction supporting the homeowners. No one is talking about increasing the taxes. But you know how to get them like more money and to build more. So that's the first question. How do you see is it possible to overturn this trend? The second, you also mentioned that it will be needed to build more, but also to use the also to mobilize the empty stock, etc.? But my question when I compare to your first slide, when you said that actually we have a huge housing crisis in cities where to build so we can say we will build more, but yeah, Really, where to build? Uh, and are we really going to this dystopian future of, you know, Europe and other countries that we will have only megapolis and that that will be then the way how the people will live in 21st century. So what can be said about this bill to build more really, really to see how we can distribute this? Um, this attempts to, to to build more. And my last question is about, uh, uh, the data which you haven't didn't show, but I don't know, do you have this data, the amount of the profits that were, uh, that were available that were that have been there in the housing sector, uh, in the last decade.”
  EU housing policy
• “Thank you Commissioner. First I have to say that I was really happy to hear that the commission is giving up from infringement procedures against the cities and states and that actually now we are changing the the story. And you want more to talk to the citizen, understand what was happening and how they were struggling with the short term rentals. And as I understood correctly, you are announcing some kind of guidelines to be in the framework of the current legislation. But are you also looking at the other side and looking at the platforms, and are you going to say something to them or try to do something with them? Because as we are staying, as it's now the status quo with the current legislation, I don't think that much can be done. So I am somehow expecting that we will be more ambitious on that in that direction, not only looking at the cities. And the second thing is also you will be the lead to enabling the new stock, building the new stock in in Europe. We should also agree that the important part of handling the crisis, but also not to forget to mobilizing the empty stock, energy renovation efficiency, etc., but which safeguards and guarantees you are having in mind that you will not make the same mistake we've been doing for the last ten years to by building the new stock, to contribute to the further financialization and speculation of the market. So we need to see the safeguards not to repeat the same mistakes. If you can say a few words, what safeguards you see that this will not happen.”
  EU regulation of short-term rentals
• “Thank you chair. And also I would like to thank Doctor Collum and Doctor Martinez Mata for their presentation, especially Doctor Colon for the in-depth analysis which I found very interesting. And actually I have two questions. First for Doctor Collum and one for Doctor Martinez. Maybe this is the obvious one question, but I think it's really important to to raise it one more time in this committee, because I'm not sure that all of our colleagues are on. We are on the same track, which we should not be because we are coming from different backgrounds. But just to clarify where you mentioned and you also wrote in annex two of your report, the impact of short term rentals on housing markets in Europe. So, without doubt, can you repeat and say that the impact of short term rentals in big cities and touristic areas is proven, is proved that they have an impact in increase of the prices? I think that we have to clearly hear from you. Is this true or it's not true? Because as I said, there are different opinions on the impact of short term rentals. And as I understood from your study, there is no doubt that there is a strong impact on the increase of the prices in big cities and in tourist areas, at least if not in general. And my second question goes to you at the beginning of your study. You are also pointing very good that there are different types of short term rentals. It was also mentioned now with my colleagues like it's not the same thing if someone is renting the room, someone is renting one extra flat and someone is buying 20 apartments.”
  EU regulation of short-term rentals
• “Thank you, chair. And thank our colleagues for presenting the opinion, which I would very much welcome on behalf of the Greens. I think we are having much in common starting from the baseline that, you know, you see housing as a fundamental right, which we fully agree. And also I really appreciate in the opinion the statement that, you know, the member States should not hide under the under the subsidiarity principle because you are right. If we want to pretend that nothing is happening and we want to continue as we were doing for now. Then we will say subsidiarity and we will do nothing. So I like that this is quite ambitious and that you're also calling for concrete measures especially. This is very good to hear which that is coming. You know, from sectors, as you mentioned, from the civil society, from the unions and also from the business sector as well. So this opinion for us is really, really important. My only question goes, uh, on your, uh, conclusions related to the bill, to the need of build more houses and more stocks, uh, or do you also consider, you know, what kind of building we want to build? And, uh, do you also recognize that there is a huge gap between the private and the public social, affordable housing? And do you see that? You know, the priority, maybe in the next following in the following years should be investments in a public housing, because if we will just build more in the private sphere, we will make maybe the same mistake which brought us to this crisis as it is situation now. Thank you.”
  EU housing policy
• “Thank you, chair, and thank you for very interesting presentations. And it's really, you know, quite complex to talk about short term rentals and and the influence because I also see the good and the bad side of the of the phenomenon. But I try to look at this problem from the perspective of the roots of the causes of the housing crisis. And one of the root is the financialization of the housing market. So when we put when we are looking through this lens on financialization, I also then see the differences in short term rentals, because if I own my house and I'm renting my room in my house in short term, I don't think this contributes to the financialization. If I have additional empty flat and then I rent the flat and living in my house, maybe I'm a little bit contributing. But if I'm having and buying hundreds of flats and putting in the short term rental, then definitely I'm contributing to the financialization. So maybe we should also try to understand, you know, is it possible to regulate in a way, really to hit the financialization part of the short term rental, not the whole segments of the short term rental? And I would like to hear your opinions on that, and also about the alternatives which we are seeing in short term rental as programs such as House exchange, where people are actually exchanging their own properties with another property, and they're not contributing either to the financialization, either to the housing crisis.”
  EU regulation of short-term rentals
• “Thank you, chair, and thank you for the presentation, which I find very, very important to remind us all that it is not only the housing crisis happening, the climate crisis is still here, because what we are seeing in some of our discussions, like some of our colleagues, forgot that there was a climate crisis as well happening. And, uh, as we as the green, of course, we will try to insist that we should look and find a solution on housing crisis also in the context of the climate crisis. Otherwise we haven't done anything. Also, as you mentioned, related to the rebuilding, the houses hit by the floods, etc. and in that sense, my question to you is how you actually see that we can build better and more quality houses not only related to the energy renovation, but can we go a step further? Like, can we also imagine that in the building, the new stocks, if we go in this direction and that will be the part of the solution for sure. Not the only one, but one part of the solution. Where are we with building the zero emission houses? Is this still too naive or too far to propose? Or do you think there is reality? And do you have a state of status of the zero emission houses? How much this stock has been built? Is it complicated? Is it too expensive? Where are we with that? Thank you.”
  Energy performance of buildings
• “(11:59:02 – 12:01:14): Thank you, chair, and thank you for the, your presentations. I have 2 concrete concrete question, 1 more general. 1st concrete question for doctor Hoekstra. You mentioned EU level guarantee for landlords. I'm not familiar with that. So if you can, little bit explain more the structure of this idea, and maybe Leila could add something because you said it's already happening in France. So do you understand that? And for doctor France, you also presented to us how the for profit student investors are coming into the Vienna, and how this reflects to the city. But what how does this reflects to the price of the rent, and how this competes with the nonprofit? Is there a difference? And can you give us a little bit more numbers? And now more general question. As you know, now we are also discussing about the new multi annual financial framework, and we are also discussing, about the money which will be dedicated for investments in housing. And, of course, student housing will be 1 of the priorities. And in the past, when we look, there has been already possibility to finance student housing from ERDF. And I know some projects has been happening across Europe, but also some mistakes has been happening, in in ERDF. I know an example of my country, Croatia. There has been investments in student dorms, for example, in very attractive cities like city of Dubrovnik, which probably all know and which needs extra accommodation. And then what happened that during the summer, the university will rent the student housing for tourists, like, in July and August. And it was financed by Yumanid. So I don't know if it's this legal or illegal, but it's for me, it was just surprising that we can actually invest your money and also to, like, benefit from the tourism as well. I my so I would like to hear your opinion on that. And, actually, which guarantees we should, which safeguards we should put in new money, not that this money will contribute to the further financialization also of the student dorms. So what guarantees could we have not to repeat some mistakes, from the past? Yeah. Thank you.”
  EU policy on urban development
• “Thank you very much, especially for this comprehensive report. I have to confess, I didn't read it all yet, but I'm on my way to do it and it will be really helpful for the work of the committee. I would really like to thank you that you emphasized very clearly, and this is important to emphasize clearly in this House that energy Performance of Buildings Directive and Energy Efficiency Directive is not an obstacle for affordable. On the contrary, it's actually contributes to affordable housing and solving the the crisis at the moment. Because unfortunately, many of my colleagues still don't understand that. As you can imagine, there's a lot of fake news around this, um, impact of those legislation, but it's good to hear that already. Now we see the positive impact of those directions. So thank you for that and especially very good when it comes from independent experts, as you and your team are. But I would like to ask you, how can you reflect on one of the actions that is proposed by the by the Commission in Affordable Housing Plan? And we have also heard that already here that we need to simplify national, regional and local planning, zoning and permitting rules. So there is a huge trend to go in this direction. What where do you see what can be done on European level in that direction? Do your findings does anything around that? And how can we be sure that this direction will not make some wrong doings, some damages to the people, because we are already seeing now that in some member States who start to simplify the the procedure around the permitting, that they are doing in a way that, for example, they give the private investor the right to expropriate the private land from another person, or we are also seeing that they are proposing some legislation which wants to bypass the local governments right to regulate and define how the cities will be developed or not to develop. So how to balance that? Do you have anything around that in your findings? Thank you.”
  EU housing policy
• “Dear colleague, here am I. Hi. You have mentioned actually how it's really important also to solve the crisis in the on the local level in the cities. And you're coming from Italy with beautiful Milan or Rome, etc. but where to build more in Milan? Where to build more in Rome? Can you explain us? Is there still some space to give it and to build the the the new stock? Can you explain a little bit on that?”
  EU policy on urban development
• “Thank you. Dear colleague, you mentioned how you warmly support this report. And you also said that there is really great need to build a new stock to solve this crisis. But at the same time, you are coming from the Netherlands and I am reading the data that there is like 200 000 empty flats in Netherland, 21,000 only in Amsterdam. And this in this report, there is nothing about that. So what what do you think about this? How we can actually mobilize the empty stock. Do we really need only to build, build, build?”
  EU housing policy
• “Madam president, Mr. Commissioner, I woke up early this morning just to go through the document because I didn't want my speech is based on the leaked draft document that was circulating around European media. And I have to say, I was quite surprised this morning when I saw that something is missing. Something. What was in the leaked document is not in the final document. And this is the European Affordable Housing plan. And this is really quite shocking because I think that we agree, this House and the commission that we are facing the housing crisis, look at the faces of these young people who are also sitting up in the galleries, who will very soon also challenge and face the crisis of not being able to pay for for their for their rent. So I am begging you and I am calling you. And please your assistant who is also taking the notes. Please write it down and underline that on the next page. Reconsider this idea to put back affordable housing plan into the Commission work programme, because this is something that we have to do it to protect social Europe. This is the promise which has been done from the president and also the Parliament is ready to back up it.”
  EU housing policy
• “Thank you. Welcome, Commissioner. And it was really good to see the numbers. And actually, the mid-term review has given some results in the housing that some of the member states really did their job. But I would like to give you two examples of reality check how we can maybe improve the things, because for me, it's the question. It's not only the numbers, how many, how much money the member states have dedicated to housing, but in which in which projects in housing. And I can also tell you from my country, Croatia, as my colleague Nicolina already mentioned, we have seen, for example, that the partnership principle and code of conduct again, didn't function because we are seeing some cities who already started to build the public stocks with no approach to humanity. They were not even invited for the table to sit with the government and see if the government can transfer the mid-term review money to those cities. So we still have a problem that the EU funds are sometimes politicized. So I'm asking you again and again, and this Parliament is asking you again, especially on the new MFF, that we have to improve the partnership principle because it's not this is not the way how it can function. And the second thing is about how you can be sure that the money which was given to the member States will not contribute to the further financialization of the housing crisis, because we have seen, unfortunately, that this Parliament in the report didn't recognize financialization as one of the key trigger of of the housing crisis.”
  EU policy on urban development
• “Thank you. Chair. Dear colleagues, I would like to remind us all how sexual and gender minorities entered the 20th century. Characterized as mentally sick people, as criminals and as sinners. And it took us 100 years to change this story. So we entered the 21st century as the ones who are not any more mentally ill, because homosexuality is not illness. We are not anymore criminals. And on contrary, there is a lot of legislation which is now protecting the sexual orientation and gender expression. So for me, this initiative is a no brainer. We have to keep on going further and not allow anyone to bring us back in the past. So my appeal to the commission is, you know, ban conversion therapy because what we have here, therapy is a form of torture. And torture is forbidden in all the member states, not only in the member states, but all around the world. And my question to the organizer, could we also maybe call not only to ban this horrible practice, but also to call for more free, accessible medical psychological support to our public health system to heal homophobia so that the people can really access to our mental and health institutions and get well. Thank you.”
  LGBTIQ+
• “Much? I actually just want to follow up on your last words. When you took the example of conflict of competence between eppo and the national prosecutor. As you rightly mentioned, there has been a problem in several member states and addressed this problem. But also the Commission, in a written answer to my question, addressed this problem in a way that you are actually understand and see the problem, and that you started to talk with the member States who most obviously have wrongly implemented the directive. So my question to you is where are we now? This was like a few months ago. Are there any progress? And are we going finally to have the good implementation of the EU law in the Member States? Thank you.”
  Jurisdiction conflicts between EU and national courts
• “Hundreds. 202,000 apartments and transforming it to the short term rental. Do you think that in this through this dimension, we can maybe also look at the solution of the problem so not to regulate everything, but at least to to recognize what contributes significantly, significantly more to the financialization. And I think when you buy 150 flats and transform them to the short term rental flats, that this is the financialization, it is not when a student is renting a room in his or her flat. So can you also clarify on that? And my question to Doctor Martinez Mata, I really enjoyed your presentation on the legal struggles, uh, which I find very interesting, but can you give us also some, uh, have you been studying the the infringement procedures initiated by the European Commission against the member states, which were also part of the legal system and we know that some. The commission was very tough on some member states, uh, because of the attempts to regulate short term rentals. Uh, and also the good news is what we heard from Commissioner Séjourné that now they are giving up. At least they will freeze the procedures because they also realize that they exaggerate. But what do you see legally in those infringement procedures? What they are pointing mostly is this the problem of the service act or digital service tax, etc.. So thank you very much.”
  EU regulation of short-term rentals
• “(11:34:22 – 11:37:41): Thank you. We continue with mister Gordon Bosanac from Reggie Greenshadow reporter. Thank you, chair. And I would also like to thank the reporters for really, really good work and very ambitious report, which is actually in line of the interim report we voted together. And I think this is really important, and we see now continuity in the work of the European Parliament on our ambition, and that makes us also much stronger in forthcoming negotiations that it will be, with council and the commission. From the Green Reg perspective, let me say that we see now cohesion policy much better protected than it was in original commissional proposal, and this is really the good news, and we want to keep on working in this direction. And, also, we welcome that environmental and social policies are also now, protected, although there will be some need to improve the implementation that those policies really then, be implemented on the ground. Especially, we welcome the new partnership principle, which could be really the game changer in implementation of cohesion policies because this new partnership principle, if it will stay that strong and we believe it should stay that strong, could not only make better efficiency of implementation of cohesion policy, but can also contribute to depolitization of cohesion policies. And then if we'll get those 2 objective, the cohesion policy will be much closer to the citizens. Of course, what can be improved and what would be direction of our amendments? First, we also want although we are all working on NRPP file, we should also be aware that there is a competitiveness file as well. And so let's check and see what is going on there and to be sure that maybe we are not doubling some policies and some things, especially when I'm talking here about the defense to see, can we also, find maybe more room that defense is less present in NRPP and maybe more there in the competitiveness policies, and there will be then more room for for other very important policies. Also, we will continue to advocate for the stronger ICE program and also housing policies, which are there, but we think that there should be clearly and more strictly, put in this in the legislation so that the member states will really be dedicated to input to work on the affordable housing policies. It was already mentioned with my colleagues from the renew. Direct access to the funding is something what we are also calling, from the beginning, and the role of the cities, not only the regions, for us is very much important. This is why we would expect also to see the urban chapters in the final text, but also to see how we can improve the little treasures which are already there in the cohesion policies and somehow has been neglected, such as European urban initiative, which can be 1 of the mechanism together with other urban mechanism could which could help our big cities and smaller cities, to keep on, working on European level. So that's in short, and let us all keep on working together in a good spirit because we need to be strong as a parliament because this proposal is very much different what the commission is offering us, and let us keep strong to get this battle. Thank you very much.”
  Cohesion and rural funding
• “Thank you, Mr. Commissioner. I welcome this EU agenda for cities. And I think there are some good things inside it. But one thing is still missing. The one thing that we were calling again and again as also as a committee, but also as a parliament, and this is the idea of direct funding to the cities, as you very well know. Uh, I'm aware that the European Union initiative is still there, and I just don't understand why we didn't use this opportunity to empower European urban initiative and really open opportunity for more direct funding to the cities, especially in times when there is such a lot of criticism that people are very much centralized. So this could be really answer to open some money and maybe money on housing, which is recognized as priority number one in the cities to have such a fund. So I'm calling again to reconsider this idea and see if there is still room for that. Second, on the simplification with my talks with the cities, they are welcoming. They are welcoming, welcoming the process of simplification, European level. But they are also telling me they are much more complication on national level. So we simplify. But then the member states make things very complicated. And this is my call also for you when we are simplifying from national level, can you also talk with the member States and check what is happening on national level, why it's so complicated? And last question is on the trace for Mrs. Delcampo also ask just if you know, where are we now with the NPS? Because we've got this, uh non-paper. From the commission, which gave more power to the regions and the cities. And as a parliament, I think we are welcoming that. And after that, no moves. So where are we now? Ah, this non-paper become a position. And are you also on the same track that, you know, maybe there will be even the urban chapters in the NPS, and that really the cities will have much stronger role even to block adoption of NPS, if this will, if they will not be consulted in the right way. Thank you.”
  EU policy on urban development
• “Thank you. I mean, what is the good news about the construction sector in the future? Is that for sure there will be investments. We don't know if those events will be more directed towards building the new stock or reconstructing or repurposing the buildings. But you know for sure there will be a lot of investments. And also the good news is that AI is actually not endangering the workers on construction sector, because someone has to build the house. For now, we still are waiting for the super robots who will maybe one day work instead of the workers. But what I think is really the bad news, and I think this is the core of the problem of the people working in construction sector is the quality of the of the working rights and the working places. I will just give you one example, you know, maybe that European institutions for years now cannot find agreement on revision of regulation 883 on the coordination of social and security system. And each time when the negotiations start, they stopped exactly on the construction sector and construction workers issue. So we see such a huge resistance from member states, you know, to actually to recognize the position of construction construction workers across the Europe. Same as with the diplomas. But this is even more important, I would say, because it really guarantees the people's rights, you know, to enjoy the social Security system. So my my call is really for everyone, you know, if there is an opportunity in front of us, we will need construction workers really to focus then on improving the quality of those of those jobs. Thank you.”
  EU competences on social policies
• “Thank you, Madam Chair, and thanks to all the speakers, which really gave, I think, a good and precise overview of the problem of the housing. And I resonate with most of your actually arguments. But as you can see, it doesn't resonate with everyone in the Parliament. But that's the point of the Parliament. But I think it's important to say that because very soon we will come with the first report, and it's really an important what will be written in which direction, actually, this Parliament will recommend some potential policy measures to reduce this crisis. And I have two questions. First, maybe for Miss Porter. I for now, it was already possible for member states, for example, to use cohesion funds to build student halls. And it seems they didn't do it. And do you know why? And maybe they did. I mean, I'm also in the committee, and I haven't seen the data exactly. But the money was there. But actually it was not used in that kind of infrastructural project. Do you have any explanations or arguments around that? And my second question goes to Miss Semple are us in this House very frequently are listening this debate coming from part of our colleagues from Spain, claiming that one of the main problems in Spain related to the housing crisis is so-called squatting phenomena. Uh, and I would just for me, it's interesting to understand that and ask you, is this the real problem in Spain, or is this something which we can also call ideological problem, as you've been called, that you are also having ideological, uh, speech here. So just to clarify, where is the squatting problem in Spain? Thank you.”
  EU policy on urban development
• “Thank you, chair, and thank you for the presentation of OCD data, which are actually in line with the other presentations. We've been looking especially regarding the youth policies and problems. So it really you're confirming some of the data that has already been presented to, to our committee, which, which is very good, that we have a strong evidence based data that we can develop, then the policy. Yes, I was actually interested with the slide, which when you showed that the traditionally most of the countries of OCD were developing policies which were focusing to supply to support the home owners, and that was like traditionally very visible. And I see this also in my country, when the state wants to solve the crisis, they are focusing how to support homeowners or how to give them more, how to subsidize the rent, subsidize the mortgages, etc. but do you have any and you mentioned that in one of your answers, that this approach is actually one of the approaches which contributed to the escalation of the crisis. So what we are needing now is a big game changer. Like really to understand that this cannot be longer. The solution? Unfortunately we are seeing this keep on going. And in my country I'm not going to the concrete example.”
  EU housing policy
• “Thank you very much. Eu citizens have been looking forward to this plan. And in political terms, Commissioner, today you have a unique opportunity to be much more decisive. Public support for ambitious measures is now clear. The plan has its positive sides, especially when it comes to the restrictions on short term rentals, energy renovation and the repurposing of neglected buildings, also looking after students and homeless people. However, I'm interested in the idea of using EU funds to build new housing. How can we make sure that this investment doesn't mean to more financialisation of house building? You want to have simpler planning permissions? Yes, that's a good idea, but it shouldn't be at the expense of planning the environment or quality of life in Croatia under the pretext of affordable housing. The government is trying to simplify planning at the expense of cities, and this is an approach which has led to a lot of opposition. So we ought not to allow the positive story about affordable housing turning into something which is not so positive and might turn people against the European institutions.”
  EU policy on urban development
• “Thank you very much. And I would actually like to echo what you, Madam Chair, has also pointed out about the position of the women pensioners and the gender pension gap, because if we if we have a magic stick and from tomorrow on, we erase the gender pay gap, this will be enforced for the women who start, who will be in the pension in the maybe 40 years after they finish with their working career, they will have the equal payments. So now we will have generations of women still being exposed to the discriminatory principle, uh, in a gender pension gap. And this is why I would really like to see what can be done more. You mentioned the directive, which is unfortunately is kind of obstacle, uh, to go with some progressive measures. But however, as a European Union, I think we should think, well, how can we support more women pensioners, especially knowing that in the eastern part of Europe, many of pensioners in general, men and women, especially women, are living on the edge or below the poverty line. So, uh, if we, for example, have Erasmus program working for the students, why don't we have some special programs working for our pensioners, which will then have in mind what is happening with the gender pension gap? And this is what I think we should put a lot of focus, um, in, in our report. And the second thing I would like to highlight also that we know that the current directive is calling the big companies to implement the measure. Smes are excluded, which makes sense. I mean, we don't have to have directive on everything, but it's really the question how can we motivate also SMEs to do much more because many people, much more people are working in SMEs, especially also the women. How we can motivate them to be more progressive and award those who are willing to do progressive measures to, uh, erase the gender pay gap. Thank you.”
  EU policy on aging workforce and pensions
• “But people can move and actually are supporting this idea of democratization of tourism, which I am fully supportive. And I would really think this is important for people to find a good and affordable tourist accommodation as well. Not only the the, the house, the living accommodation. So I would like to hear your opinion on that and very concrete also for the colleague. I need to take a glass. Sorry. Malika, you mentioned several measures that has been introduced. Legal measures. Was there any backlash? Did anyone challenge those measures? Because yesterday we've been hearing also when the cities and the regions are trying to do something immediately, there are some backlash. For me, it's especially important. Has there been any challenges from the European level on those measures in the forms of infringement procedures? And also for Mr. Baraka? I mean, I like this approach. Let's let's agree about the number and then let's develop the policies. I know that in Croatia, which is extremely tourist country. They started to work on this direction, but the problem is to agree on the number, especially when you put a requirement on the local mayor to agree on the number. So how do you see you know how to to empower the mayors and local authorities to really agree on the realistic number, not to be under the influence of any of the lobbyists? Thank you.”
  EU strategy for tourism development
• “Because what we've been also seeing that, you know, building the new stock or being in the housing, uh, business, it really gained you a huge, I mean, huge, significant profit. And this was very attractive then to invest or to invest in the properties because people were thinking that in a short period, actually they can earn a lot of money. But then we've been seeing some models, as in Vienna, which were explaining to us that profit will be also there if but if we are looking and working long term and not expect to get a significant profit in a short time, but to try to also change the paradigm and invest and get the profit, but not in 1 or 2 years, but in 30 years. So do you have seen in the member states, in the OECD member states this trend of is it possible to change this trend of gaining a lot of profit? Thank you. Sorry for being a little bit longer, but yeah.”
  EU housing policy
• “Thank you. Millions of our fellow citizens are looking at this House with the expectation to deliver solutions on devastating housing crisis. And today a strange divided majority will deliver the report, which unfortunately will not provide solutions. On the contrary, it may even deepen the crisis. The housing crisis is not a natural disaster. It is the result of political choices, decades of policies that have treated homes as financial assets rather than a place to live. The PPE group wants to keep on going in this direction. How else to explain? They even don't want to recognize housing as a human right. They do not recognize speculation and devastating short term rental policies as root causes of this crisis. With this report, the PPE and the right wing are betraying people in Europe, especially European youth. Some of them are sitting up there in the gallery who are struggling with the rent and loans, but there is no surrender. We shall keep on struggling together to ensure decent home for everyone. Thank you.”
  EU regulation of short-term rentals · EU housing policy
• “Thank you. Chair. Commissioners. I would like to start with your talks about how safe we are that we are still keeping green and social Europe in the next MFF because as my colleague was mentioned, there are some numbers, some percentage in it. And we can talk about those percentages. Should they go up not down. But what is I'm more concerned how it will be ensured that in this new model and this new simplification, flexibility, merging the programs we will not have, like the the green washing activities or social washing activities, that really there will be impact to keep social and green Europe still running, although we see a lot of people who are complaining on this approach. But I think that we need guarantees that social and green Europe will be present in the next MFF. And the second thing is about the partnership principle. And yes, Mr. Fitzhugh mentioned article 21 and it looks a little bit better after the after the non so-called non-paper. But also can we do something more on that. Because now we are shifting really the, the logic from, you know, many different programs into one program. And we have to ensure that this will be full participation so that we are not discussing. Are we using the word should consult, would consult, could consult. But really to say if article 21 not respected there will be no approval of the plan? Can we be more and more strict and more explicit around that? And also, I would like to emphasize one more time in this new approach of merging things together in one national plan, can we give more opportunities and space not only to the regions, but also to the cities? You know that there is like for decades, the call of the cities to finally have access to the European funding. And now I think there is really possibility through EU facility program that we open finally, some funding for direct funding to the cities, which will be very, very important political gesture from the commission side. Thank you very much.”
  Conditions to access EU budget
• “Unfortunately, Commissioner Jorgensen is recognizing this, and he is aware of that. So my worry is, do you have some safeguards when you receive the proposal from the member states, that you look at it and see that this money will not make more mess? I can just give you one example again, from my country, Croatia, we have more than half million empty stocks, empty flats in Croatia. So the government wanted to mobilize those half million. Instead of increasing the taxes on those flats, they offer to the owners of that flats amounts of the money to buy those flats for the ten, ten years, for example, and they gave them immediately €50,000 to get those flats and then put them on the market. So it was completely wrong decision to do. Unfortunately, this measure has failed because they managed to mobilise only 300 flights. But this is the way in which we should not ever, ever invest European money because we are just deepening the crisis. So what are the guarantees that we are not making things worse?”
  EU policy on urban development
• “(15:39:51 – 15:42:20): Thank you. I would like to thank the repertoire, for the report and for the collection of 408 amendments, which constitute a good basis for our future work. Mister Petrov, I see that you have personally tabled almost 100 amendments covering a wide array of issues, and I'm certain that this level of personal commitment bodes well for successful negotiations. I would like to emphasize 3 main points that we would like to see in the final version of the report. First is quality of offers, second, outreach, and third, data collection. Firstly, we welcome the commitment made by member states to young people under the age of 30 to offer them good quality employment, continued education, or a trainership opportunity. In this respect, we stress that the job quality remains a major challenge in youth employment. Public policies should contribute to combating precarious forms of works, including unpaid or underpaid trainerships, involuntary part time work, temporary agency work, and undeclared work while promoting fair working conditions and sustainable education and labor market integration. Let us not forget that more vulnerable groups such as women, racialized youth, youth with disabilities, youth from remote or rural territories or with a migrant background face a higher risk of unemployment as well as structural barriers to accessing training and skills development. Furthermore, there is a need for integrated support system that encompass housing, health care, and social protection to create a conductive environment for employment. Secondly, we should call member states and the commission to invest dedicated efforts to outreach, or you could say in branding marketing of the youth guarantee to ensure comprehensive awareness among young people, particularly targeting vulnerable and marginalizing groups. And thirdly, we need to, effectively access the quality inclusiveness and long term outcomes of youth guarantee schemes. For this, we need the development of common indicators, minimum quality standards, including fair pay based on a living wage, and access to social security protection, monitoring frameworks, and improved data collection and transparency. Those will be our priorities. Thank you.”
  Youth employment & training
• “Thank you. Chair. Dear colleagues, I would like to remind us all how sexual and gender minorities entered the 20th century. Characterized as mentally sick people, as criminals and as sinners. And it took us 100 years to change this story. So we entered the 21st century as the ones who are not any more mentally ill, because homosexuality is not illness. We are not anymore criminals. And on contrary, there is a lot of legislation which is now protecting the sexual orientation and gender expression. So for me, this initiative is a no brainer. We have to keep on going further and not allow anyone to bring us back in the past. So my appeal to the commission is, you know, ban conversion therapy because what we have here, therapy is a form of torture. And torture is forbidden in all the member states, not only in the member states, but all around the world. And my question to the organizer, could we also maybe call not only to ban this horrible practice, but also to call for more free, accessible medical psychological support to our public health system to heal homophobia so that the people can really access to our mental and health institutions and get well. Thank you.”
  LGBTIQ+
• “And actually the banks were the most profit get the most profits out of that. In that sense, I'm also hearing in this committee ideas that, for example, we should use ESF plus funding, which will now be allowed also to redirect into the housing issue to subsidize the rent. Is this the same mistake? So, Mr. Rami, if you can clarify that. And my last question is we are really struggling. Also, I'm very much interested in progressive taxation. So the idea if you have one property, fine. If you have the first property, let's say it's European. Life is in a way that you can have two property not to be heavily taxed, but if you are having the third one and the fourth and the fifth, I think then the heavy taxation should start. And I know that the model is extremely complicated because you have to decide what is also the size of the property. And when I was talking to the tax authorities for them was very complicated to get the data and have all the data on the on the property. So is there any good model of very progressive taxation that you can share with us? Thank you very much.”
  Wealth taxation
• “Very good question. Because it's much easier to spend it on the defence than to spend it on the housing. And the second thing is what I'm worried who will control the spending in the defence when on the national level, the member states will say, but we have our security laws which are protecting us for disclosing the information on spending in the defence. So I see it. It's for member States, much easier to grab into the defence than in the housing and energy transition.”
  Defence spending
• “Thank you. Just to continue on this health issue, the question for Mr. Heretic from Europa, because we know that Amazon Employees for climate Justice workers group within the company has pointed out how Amazon is failing to fulfil its climate pledge to become net net 0 in 2040. But the climate crisis is not just about numbers. It is also hitting the workers in the warehouses and the drivers on the roads. So with temperature getting hotter and hotter every year, Amazon warehouses and delivery workers are facing increasingly brutal and unsafe conditions under extreme heat. Can you tell us more about how extreme heat affects Amazon workers, and how the company should actually protect them and react on this increase? Heat? Thank you.”
  EU rules on hazardous working conditions
• “Thank you. I'm very glad that through this first report that the Parliament is about to adopt on housing issues, we have clearly detected the problems of the housing crisis. First, the speculative investments and leaving the housing policies to private capital. This cannot go on. Secondly, lack of investments in affordable social housing, mobilization of empty houses and energy efficiency. This is the direction in which we have to take. And third problem is the growth of short term rent, rather not controlling short term rent. A good news is that within the cohesion policy, we have recognised housing as an important issue and that money is being put offered to the countries to deal with these basic problems. But the bad news is that the Commission has, in a way, capitulated before the member states and left everything into the hands of the member States to decide on their own whether they wish or not wish to deal with this crisis, or perhaps with some other priorities. And that is the bad news. I also want to stress once more that regardless of the attacks of the green transition that we often hear about, it has already gone too far and nobody will stop it. Not the right wing or ECR. And because of this, I trust that we really have to understand that a just transition which will be adequately financed is the key to further progress. It cannot be left to the hands of Member States alone, and I would like to have both the Commission and the Parliament to play a stronger role and not to capitulate in the face of the Member States. Thank you.”
  EU housing policy
• “Thank you. I apologise that I haven't been here from the beginning because it was. This is the destiny of the MEPs as some parallel events happened which I had to visit. So I haven't been following, although I was very much interested to see what they were going to say about space and housing. But at the end, you mentioned this prevention potential, potential potentiality of the prevention of the floods and the severe weather conditions. So can you also explain how does. I mean, how do you like a member state or even the local local alert mechanism can then use what they're doing in the real time on this space level? So is this therefore disconnected? What is the the time? If it can be more concrete on alerting and then saving? Of course, the the housing stocks which will be flooded and then devastated and not renovated, you know, or renovated in a bad way.”
  EU policy on infrastructure for preventing climate-related disasters (floods, droughts, extreme weather etc.)
• “Mr. Commissioner. Madam Minister, I will not call it historic, but an unusually important European Council meeting is taking place tomorrow for the first time ever. The member States will discuss affordable. And I also hope social housing. And this is the good news. We have seen what the leaders will focus on tomorrow, first discussing and then calling the commission to present the plan. Not that much for the first time, but okay. And I'm using this stage now to call the leaders to go out of the comfort zone and be more ambitious. Tomorrow, I call them to commit to take the mid-term review of the cohesion policy into account and increase investments in housing. Already this year, they can invite our cities and regions to have an actual seat at the table and draw up plans to invest enough money in housing and secure the money through cohesion. There is really no time to waste and we have to act starting from tomorrow on. Thank you.”
  Cohesion and rural funding
• “And in that sense, my expectation from the Greens would be that you will be the one also responsible to protect all the efforts that in the future, when we are building affordable housing, that we don't go in the trap of the regulation and suddenly put a lot of money into the public stock, into the public, into the affordable housing stocks, which will be with the less quality. And this is why I really think, and I'm expecting from all of my colleagues, that we keep on working in that sense. And my question will be very concrete to you now. At the moment, we are also opening the cohesion policy for affordable housing. And as you know, there is a thematic concentration on climate in affordable housing, in cohesion policy related to housing. Today, if you build a house or a public building, it doesn't count as a contribution to the climate because it's also I think this is the fair thing to say, and it's a good one because it's only energy renovation. And we are seeing that some of the people would like that. We change that. So what do you think about that? If we will invest from cohesion policy and if we want those houses to contribute to the climate concentration, should we then also in this really to build better, to build affordable housing, housing which will have less impact on the climate damages or maybe building even the zero emission buildings? Thank you.”
  EU policy on urban development
• “Thank you. Colleagues. When we mentioned Croatia, people think of our blue sea and beautiful beaches. Maybe we've been so lucky as to try the cheese from pag or Malvasia wine from Istria. But a few of you know what Kulen is. Few of you probably know that Croatia has, uh, among the poorest pensioners in the EU. They can only dream of the delicacies that I mentioned. Uh. Some €500 of pension that they receive per month barely covers their basic costs. And women are especially at risk. Uh, we call upon the commission to fight for equal pensions for women and to fight for equal pay for women. And please, let's not, uh, talk about the fact that we don't have competence in pensions. Uh, we have to find it.”
  EU policy on aging workforce and pensions
• “Thank you very much, Madam Vice President. Yes. Our common goals in the direction that we see that the new budget was also very much inspired by ADF and the experience that we had with the RAAF. And we can agree partially that RAAF had an important impact. But what we are now seeing and we are wondering, did the commission really also looked on the bad sides of RAAF something what is also visible? For example, in the audit the Court of Auditors report, which actually made the evaluation of RAAF and actually has showed some really, really big problems with RAAF and which mechanism are has been improved, that the mistakes in RAAF will not be repeated now again and we don't see those mechanisms. So you said, you know that the commission you will sit on the national and regional plans and you will deeply check what the member states are suggesting. But that was the case with ref as well. And at the end it happened. I always going with this example from my country, that my government then give the money to build a Hilton hotel on one of the islands in Croatia, under the goal of green, digital and sustainable economy. I don't know how this can happen and how what what guarantees we are having that this will, you know that the member States will not find a way how to cheat, because, you know, there is always a way to be creative in interpreting the goals, especially the social goals.”
  Accounting and auditing of EU budget
• “Thank you, chair, and welcome. Madam Commissioner Roosevelt, I think it's really, really important that you are here today because maybe you are also sensing the dynamics in this committee, how we maybe have some very different views on on the future of affordable housing in the context also of the constant climate threats we are also facing. And we are not forgetting that, you know, the climate change is still there. It didn't disappear because we just pick up some new priorities. So it's there in that sense. Uh, I would really like also to reflect a little bit on what we've been hearing. And you've been also now asked by the colleague from the PPE that you should take more care on the simplification and put more simplification in your work. But we are all aware, and I guess you are also aware not to fall in a trap. That simplification ends up with the deregulation because then we didn't do anything. If we are talking about less bureaucracy. Yes, we will all agree. And this is the simplification, less bureaucracy when we are asking for licences, less bureaucracy, when we are making decisions, less bureaucracy, when we have to build a house and collect the documents. But this doesn't mean to deregulate, to give up from some of the very important goals we have been put in front of us also in the construction sectors. And my colleague from Italy also questioned the the efficiency of the greenhouse directive. Call it like that. But I would really like to remind you, you know, if you if you will ask old ancient Italian builders who were building the most beautiful houses and premises across Italy, which is such a beautiful country today because of their work, how they will be built today, they will build in accordance to the Green Directive, because they knew that if we are building that, we have to build in long term, sustainable.”
  Energy performance of buildings
• “Thank you. Okay. Thank you very much. Yeah. And my apologies that I came very late to this public hearing, because actually, I was at the Regi committee where we voted for the first report of the use of cohesion policies in the solving the housing crisis. So it was much, very much related to the topic we are discussing now. But my first question goes also to Miss Jules Van Damme from Svenska. The fact is that even now, the member states can use cohesion money to invest, uh, on fighting homelessness and social housing. Now, the new chapter we are opening, it is the affordable housing. But how are you satisfied with those investments in the past? Because what I'm seeing actually that the member states, although there is a clear opportunity, they are not using enough this financial means. And where do you think its a problem? And my second question goes. I mean, I have to put it to Linda and to, uh, George Testa about the about the tenants and landlords rights because there is always this tension. And we also understood that, you know, there is interest on both sides that the regulation about the rights of tenants, but also lenders is very good and fairly regulated. And also if they can give us concrete vision, how they see how the European Union can help their. Because for me, it's hard to see because of this national competences in this part of of the housing rights. And then when we are hearing the colleagues from Spain talking about, you know, the squatting, but, you know, there is a right to property very well guaranteed in Spain, and there are the courts who should deal with that. What what you do think something else could be done on European level to protect more the tenants, but also the landlords. Thank you.”
  EU housing policy
• “Thank you. Colleagues. When we mentioned Croatia, people think of our blue sea and beautiful beaches. Maybe we've been so lucky as to try the cheese from pag or Malvasia wine from Istria. But a few of you know what Kulen is. Few of you probably know that Croatia has, uh, among the poorest pensioners in the EU. They can only dream of the delicacies that I mentioned. Uh. Some €500 of pension that they receive per month barely covers their basic costs. And women are especially at risk. Uh, we call upon the commission to fight for equal pensions for women and to fight for equal pay for women. And please, let's not, uh, talk about the fact that we don't have competence in pensions. Uh, we have to find it.”
  EU policy on aging workforce and pensions
• “So I would call you and suggest you that if when you are talking to Member States, if this is happening also tomorrow, really to try to rethink the consultation process around mid-term review and somehow recharge this process or, you know, just to to give more space and more messages towards the cities and regions that actually something can be done already now and they will appreciate that. So that's the message. Maybe it will be good that also you transfer to the member state. And the last question is also about something maybe what can be done this year. We have been talking on that before. As you know, there are some infringement and infringement procedures started against some member states because of some of the cities who were brave enough to do some very important steps to protect the the housing and fight the housing crisis. So can we also as a as a sign of the goodwill at the beginning of this process, to question and consider if these infringement procedures can maybe be stopped? I think it will be symbolically very important gesture from the commission side. Thank you.”
  EU policy on urban development
• “I would like to know when you're talking about political blackmail within the cohesion funds. So from your perspective of the majority in Hungary, when you have politically completely marginalized the opposition, How many funds have you allowed to be used by the city of Budapest, for example, you do not allow this because somebody from an opposing party is leading this city. So how are you not ashamed to speak about political blackmail when it is precisely your Hungarian government? A typical example of a scheming with with funds. Thank you.”
  Rule of law in Hungary