The Social Democrat group (S&D) in the European Parliament is demanding that Ursula von der Leyen implement more European social and political measures in the next legislature to end the European housing problem. This is the main condition for supporting her continuity at the head of the European Commission. In view of the decisive vote in the European Parliament, scheduled for next Thursday, and which the German conservative must overcome to remain in office, the S&D group, with at least 136 MEPs, is also setting a requirement that the green agenda not be shelved. The socialists are also demanding that Von der Leyen – from the European People’s Party family and who has been flirting for months with the Italian Prime Minister, the ultra-conservative Giorgia Meloni, and with her parliamentary group, the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) – not cooperate with the extreme right.
In their proposal, presented to Von der Leyen in a closed-door meeting in the European Parliament on Tuesday, the Social Democrats speak of a lack of affordable housing and a pressing crisis across Europe. They propose that specific programmes be included within the European cohesion policy and an additional investment of at least 50 billion euros, from various sources of financing – including the European Investment Bank (EIB) – to draw up a European programme. This framework would include social and affordable housing plans, support for national policies and public housing, a legislative initiative to regulate rents and binding objectives to gradually eliminate the number of homeless people in the EU. “The housing shortage is a major European problem, which is also transversal, and covers everything from energy efficiency, the anti-poverty agenda and others,” says Socialist MEP Lina Gálvez.
The Social Democrats are also calling for the creation of a European Commissioner for Housing. According to parliamentary sources present at the meeting, Von der Leyen has been “receptive” to this idea. Other sources speak of a good atmosphere and stress that the German conservative made an effort to convince them. They illustrate this with an example: the initial intervention of the candidate to repeat as President of the European Commission at this meeting was expected to last 20 minutes, but it lasted for 40. “We have heard good words, but we need more specificity and for this specificity to be translated into the strategic lines that Von der Leyen has to present in writing, before the debate that we are going to hold next Thursday in the European Parliament,” says Iratxe GarcĂa, president of S&D.
“The support of the socialist group cannot be a blank cheque,” ​​insists GarcĂa, who explains that the procedure for supporting the German parliament was similar last term. “We want it to make commitments in terms of social policy and fundamental rights. And we also want to send a clear signal that we will not allow a regression in what have been fundamental European advances,” he adds.
Von der Leyen is stepping up her offensive to win the 361 votes (out of 720) in the European Parliament that she needs to lead the European executive again, as proposed by EU leaders a few weeks ago. The Commission president is seeking to convince her traditional alliance: her own MEPs from the Popular Party, the Social Democrats and the Liberals. The three groups together have 401.
But the voting process is secret and the German expects to lose votes even from her own ranks. That is why she is also sounding out the Greens (53 MPs), with whom she met on Wednesday – she also met with the liberals of Renew – and some conservatives. On Tuesday, in her meeting with the Social Democrats, she again differentiated between Meloni’s far-right group, ECR, with whom she will meet on Tuesday, and others, such as the new Patriots for Europe, of the Hungarian Viktor Orbán and the French Marine Le Pen, which has become the third parliamentary group. The German does not consider establishing a coalition with ECR or structured cooperation, but rather some concrete collaboration to push forward initiatives.
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The votes of the Social Democrats are thus decisive for Von der Leyen. When negotiating, the S&D group, in addition to housing policies, places great emphasis on social and labour measures, to which it devotes a specific section (the first and longest of a 12-page document). In this section, it is important to strengthen the European labour authority or limit the chains of contracts in subcontractors. They also demand that a target of coverage of 80% of employees’ wage-earners’ agreements be set, a step that, if implemented, would have little impact in Spain, which easily exceeds this level, but would have a great impact in the eastern countries, with much lower levels of protection.
“Von der Leyen must not abandon the social, equality and environmental agenda, and even if there are other priorities, she must continue to promote it. A lot has been done, but it must be implemented,” adds Gálvez. The Social Democrat delegations agree with the Greens in demanding that there be no turning back on the European Green Pact. One of the points of this programme will be controversial: the approval of 2035 being the last year in which manufacturers can sell combustion cars. This measure was approved with great difficulty in the legislature that is now coming to an end and there is a lot of pressure from Von der Leyen’s own party, the EPP, to delay the entry into force of this prohibition. Parliamentary sources point out that this was the point where the German was most evasive.