The European Commission has advanced this Wednesday that in 2027 it will present a legislative initiative aimed at cutting the administrative burdens that today weigh down the construction and renovation of housing. The idea is to facilitate construction work, reduce costs and expand the residential stock, within a work plan that also includes new actions to contain energy prices and the withdrawal of 18 regulatory proposals that remain stalled.
With this package, the Community Executive wants to help address a housing crisis that, according to its warning, has become a cause for concern for many European citizens. The regulatory simplification proposal is expected for the second quarter of next year, as part of the European Affordable Housing Plan, although for now Brussels has not specified which specific rules it intends to modify.
"Our goal is clear: less bureaucracy and complexity for citizens, and more room for companies to invest, innovate and grow," the European Commissioner for Economy and Productivity, Valdis Dombrovskis, defended during the presentation of the work programme, in which he highlighted that simplification will also reach sectors such as banking and transport, and will include measures to speed up the granting of permits for projects considered strategic.
In the energy field, Brussels is working on new measures to respond to the rising cost of electricity and fuels. Among them is a legislative package to rationalize sector rules from 2030 and the possible creation of a mechanism to encourage the installation of heat pumps, with the aim of easing the initial outlay for households and reducing their vulnerability to the increase in fossil fuels.
The Community Executive is also studying immediate actions to improve the performance of EU refineries and a proposal to defer certain obligations included in the methane emissions regulations, in a context of supply tensions and a sharp rise in energy costs.
The work programme also includes a review of the European directives on the protection of birds and habitats, including the regulations for the Natura 2000 network, scheduled for the third quarter of 2027, in order to assess whether it is necessary to introduce adjustments that strengthen its implementation.
To these lines of action are added a European plan against heatwaves, new policies to improve water management, and an update of the CO2 emission limits for heavy vehicles. On the social front, Brussels is preparing a European agreement on care and a strategy on the “right to stay” to make it easier for people to develop their life project in their regions of origin.
Brussels proposes withdrawing 18 legislative files
Alongside the new priorities, the Commission proposes withdrawing 18 legislative proposals that have still not seen the light of day, either because they have hardly progressed in negotiations, because they could entail unnecessary costs, or because, in the view of the Community Executive, they have ceased to respond to the Union’s central priorities.
Among them is the one known as “Green Claims”, with which the aim was to combat misleading environmental advertising through common requirements so that companies could justify the sustainability claims used in the marketing of their products.
The list of affected texts also includes the reform of the taxation of energy products and electricity, blocked by the lack of unanimity among the Twenty-Seven, as well as proposals to set common rules for business taxation and address delays in payments between companies.
Before deciding whether to definitively withdraw these files, the Commission will take into account the positions of the European Parliament and the Council. In addition, its roadmap includes the repeal of 14 other rules already in force that it considers are no longer suitable for the purposes for which they were approved.