Promoting the Right to Housing at the EU level: challenges and policy proposals

In the face of pressing urban housing challenges across the globe, a “Municipalist Declaration of Local Governments for the Right to Housing and the Right to the City”, entitled “Cities for Adequate Housing”, was presented at the High Level Political Forum that took place at the United Nations (UN) in New York in July 2018. The Declaration, which demands more resources and competences for cities to provide adequate housing for their citizens, was signed by dozens of cities from different continents and is continuing to receive new endorsements.  

This policy-oriented seminar will examine how to operationalize the Declaration in the context of the European Union (EU). Bringing together experts, practitioners and policy-makers, the objective is to discuss how the general demands outlined in the Declaration can be translated into more concrete regulatory and policy proposals and practices at EU level. The seminar forms part of a wider process of developing and adapting the Declaration to the regional level. What supra-national institutional tools and frameworks are required to tackle the housing problems experienced in European cities?