Housing and positive European integration: permissible state aid for improving the urban environment

Abstract

Housing is not one of the European Union (EU's) formal competences, but European integration does affect member states' housing policies to a significant extent. Without the establishment of EU-level competence, housing cannot become a field of positive integration and the Europeanisation of housing policies will continue to occur through negative integration, i.e. removing housing policy barriers to the establishment of the single European market. This paper analyses a state aid case relating to housing development in the city of Apeldoorn, the Netherlands. The case would suggest that the Commission concludes, on the one hand, that policies which use state funds to provide land for housing distort competition and yet, on the other hand, it views the improvement of the urban environment and quality of life in the neighbourhood as a well-defined EU objective that may make such aid permissible. This case is examined in the context of other state aid decisions on the Joint European Support for Sustainable Investment in City Areas programme and on services of general economic interests, as well as a comparable case in which state aid was not allowed. It concludes that an EU competence has developed on the urban environment and quality of life and that, as such, positive integration on housing issues exists.

Europeanisation in the Field of Housing: Its Areas of Influence, Different Approaches, Mechanisms, and Missing Links

“…However, it does have shared competence over spatially relevant policies such as regional, environmental, and transport policies (Purkarthofer 2019). In accordance with the authors' findings, the aforementioned forces of EU membership (Vais 2009), EU structural funds with housing-related investments (Parysek 2010;Korthals Altes 2015), and the EU Urban Agenda are shaped and reinforced by the European Commission (Purkarthofer 2019). This influence is also exerted through the participation of member states in European governance initiatives, such as the Urban Agenda Partnership on Affordable Housing.…”

“…Member states must therefore ensure that their social housing policies align with the EU agenda, refrain from any distortion of competition, and make them 'Europe-proof' (Stephens 1999;Elsinga et al 2008;Korthals Altes 2015). The European Commission generally advocates for the targeted allocation of social housing to those who are socially disadvantaged, a residual approach (Gruis and Priemus 2008).…”

“…The tension between EU competition law (the European Transparency Directive, European competition law in conjunction with the EU Services Directive and the Altmark ruling) and national autonomy in the field of social housing has been explored by numerous authors, with particular focus on the Dutch case (Priemus 2006(Priemus , 2008Elsinga et al 2008;Gruis and Priemus 2008;Korthals Altes 2015) or the Swedish case (Magnusson and Turner 2008), or even comparing both (Elsinga and Lind 2013). The Dutch and Swedish authorities have opted for a social rental sector that is open to a wide range of people and often in competition with private housing.…”

The single European market and the demise of Flemish housing policy

“…The impact of the single market on housing policies is unclear. Most literature focuses on the fact that the production of new affordable housing is affected significantly by policies on state aid (Adair, Berry, & McGreal, 2003;Colomb and Santinha, 2014;Elsinga, Haffner, & Van der Heijden, 2008;Korthals Altes, 2014b;Priemus and Gruis, 2011;Taşan-Kok, Groetelaers, Haffner, Van der Heijden, & Korthals Altes, 2013). However, other single market policies, such as public procurement (Korthals Altes, 2006;Korthals Altes, 2014a;Taşan-Kok and Korthals Altes, 2012) and the four freedoms À the free movement of goods, capital, persons and the freedom of establishment, including the freedom to provide services (Dimitrova, 2013;Haffner and Hoekstra, 2006) À may also have an impact on housing provision.…”