“From Dublin to Athens, it’s clear: there’s a housing crisis,” said António Costa, at a joint press conference with the mayors of Paris, Barcelona and Rome, after a meeting with mayors from several European Union (EU) countries in Paris.
The former Portuguese prime minister and former mayor of Lisbon considered that this “housing crisis” is reflected on the streets with “more and more homeless people” and that it is not exclusive to people “on low incomes: it is a crisis that affects the middle class, but especially the younger generations”.
António Costa appealed to all the countries in the European political and economic bloc: “If we want to strengthen our social cohesion, our democratic systems, and increase our competitiveness, we need to solve this problem.”
“I was once the mayor of a town hall and in my day housing was not an issue for the European Council and the European institutions,” he commented, drawing parallels with today, when the issue is addressed in practically every EU country.
For the President of the European Council, who has been in office for almost a year, this “crisis has to be resolved with cities and the people who live in them”.
António Costa recognised that there is “a lot of diversity” and that there can be no single solution. However, the answer can be found at the European Union level, admitted the president of one of the main European institutions. The housing crisis will be discussed at the next formal meeting of the European Council, scheduled for the end of October.
Platform with Lusa
