(back)THE RIGHT TO HOUSING IN THE EUROPEAN UNION
The 2003-2005 National Action Plans on Social Inclusion
With
the signing of the Treaty of Amsterdam on 2 October 1997, the heads of state and
government took an important step towards a more genuine social policy for the
EU. They agreed to strengthen the Treaty in several areas of social
policy, including employment, equal opportunities, health and social inclusion. All
these areas are important for the fight against homelessness and severe housing
exclusion.
The
heads of state and government agreed in Amsterdam to include two new articles
related to social exclusion under the Title ‘Social policy, Education,
Vocational training and Youth’. These articles provide the legal basis for the
EU to take initiatives in the fight against social exclusion and poverty.
Article
136 reads as follows: The
Community and the Member States…shall have as their objectives the promotion
of employment, improved living and working conditions…proper social
protection, dialogue between management and labour, the development of human
resources with a view to lasting high employment and the combating of exclusion.
Article
137 lists the areas in which the EU should develop policy initiatives to achieve
the above aim. It lists as one of the areas "the integration of
persons excluded from the labour market".
The article continues to explain what measures the EU is allowed to take. It specifically refers to policy initiatives to combat social exclusion:
The
Council… may adopt measures designed to encourage cooperation between Member
States through initiatives aimed at improving knowledge, developing exchanges of
information and best practices, promoting innovative approaches and evaluating
experiences in order to combat social exclusion.
It
is in general not clear whether undocumented migrants also fall in the scope,
but it is clear that nowhere explicit mention is made.
It
was only during the Portuguese Presidency that the EU made serious progress with
the development of a strategy against poverty and social exclusion. Following
the Informal Council of Ministers of Social Affairs in February 2000, the
Commission published the Communication ‘Building an inclusive Europe’ in
which it developed a proposal for a strategy against social exclusion. The
European Commission stressed the multidimensional nature of social exclusion,
which goes beyond issues of employment and access to the labour market.
The importance of access to education, to health care, to the judicial systems,
to rights and to decision-making was highlighted. The importance of housing for
a European social inclusion strategy was not mentioned. The Commission called
for the development of common objectives and a common approach to fighting
social exclusion at EU level.
The
Communication ‘Building an inclusive Europe’ was one of the supporting
documents for the meeting of the European Council of Lisbon in March 2000.
It was at this meeting that the heads of state and government decided to put the
fight against social exclusion and poverty high on the EU agenda.
The European Council of Lisbon decided to set itself a new strategic goal for the next decade:
‘to become the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion’.
It
is obvious that in order to achieve this goal both economic and social action is
required. The whole of initiatives of the EU in the economic and social
fields in order to reach the above goal is commonly known as the ‘Lisbon
strategy’.
In
this framework, The European Council decided on a strategy to combat social
exclusion and poverty. This strategy is based on the open method of
co-ordination. This means that the strategy combines activities at both
the level of the EU and the national level and respects the competencies of the
Member States. The role of the EU is to co-ordinate the strategy and to
promote and facilitate exchanges of information and experiences.
As
part of the strategy the Member States should develop a National Action Plan
(NAP),
which
is based on general EU guidelines and objectives. Each round of NAP’s
covers a period of two years and after each round the EU refines its objectives
and guidelines.
The
2003-2005 National Action Plans on Social Inclusion[11]
The
2003-2005 National
Action Plans on Social Inclusion all
agree that decent housing, at an affordable price for households and in a safe,
dynamic environment offering appropriate social support and an environment where
children can grow up in good conditions, is a central plank in the fight against
poverty and social exclusion. Again, no explicit mention is made of undocumented
migrants.
The
social and economic cost of the absence of decent housing appears to seriously
The
first Joint Report on Social Inclusion, adopted in December 2001 and presented
at the Laeken-Brussels European Council, had stressed that for all Member States
the need to guarantee everyone access to decent housing was one of the eight
core challenges of their policies against poverty and social exclusion. It
stated that: "Access to good quality and affordable accommodation is a
fundamental need and right. Ensuring that this need is met is still a
significant challenge in a number of Member States. In addition, developing
appropriate integrated responses both to prevent and address homelessness is
another essential challenge for some countries."
While
most Member States (Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland,
Luxembourg, Portugal, United Kingdom) emphasise the acuteness of their unmet
housing needs, they fail to set any objectives for eradicating their existing
housing problems by 2005, or even 2010, or even further down the line. The sole
exception is the United Kingdom, which guarantees that by 2010 all social
housing will be decent. While measures for combating the situations of penury or
degradation or insalubrity reported are mentioned, it is therefore difficult in
most cases to assess them against the Nice objective of access for all to decent
and sanitary housing.
For
certain Member States, such as Belgium, France, Ireland and Luxembourg, which
are experiencing a steep increase in unmet demand for affordable housing for
persons on low incomes, it is a particularly important challenge.
For
others, such as Greece, Portugal and the United Kingdom, the paramount challenge
between now and 2010 is to combat the dilapidation and insalubrity which affects
a large part of the housing stock for people on low incomes and promote the
social integration of the families concerned, notably by rehousing them. France
also plans to make this a big priority for the next five years.
Finally, for countries such as Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden, the main challenge is still to help target groups such as young persons, single persons, the elderly, disabled people, immigrants, Roma, travellers and the homeless to obtain accommodation appropriate to their specific needs. These Member States also give priority to improving the neighbourhood and the surrounding areas.
(10) http://www.feantsa.org/keydocs/overview_eu1.htm
[11] JOINT REPORT ON SOCIAL INCLUSION, summarising the results of the examination of the National Action Plans for Social Inclusion for the period 2003-2005