The European Union needs to do more to address the housing crisis facing young people, the president of the European Parliament has said after being elected for a second term. Roberta Metsola, a 45-year-old Maltese politician, was elected to the role that chairs the 720-seat parliament by an overwhelming majority in a vote on Tuesday.
Speaking after her re-election, Ms Metsola said the EU had to do more to tackle the housing crisis across the 27 countries in the bloc. “We cannot move forward if our youth are unable to rent let alone buy a place they can call home. Europe’s housing crisis is looming, and we must have the tools to help address it even on a European level.”
Ms Metsola comes from the European People’s Party (EPP), the centre-right grouping that includes Fine Gael and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen. She was first elected president of the parliament halfway through the previous five-year term in January 2022. Some 562 of the 699 MEPs who voted backed Ms Metsola to remain in the position, while 61 voted for Irene Montero, a candidate put forward by the Left grouping.
After the vote Ms Metsola said the EU needed a new “security and defence framework” to resist “the expansionist dreams of dictators in our neighbourhood”.
Polarisation had led to a more confrontational politics and in some cases “political violence”, she said. “We need to move beyond this zero-sum thinking that has excluded people, that turns people away. That foments anger and hate rather than builds hope and belief. We understand that the comfort of such easy politics offers no real solutions.”
She made reference to young Irish woman Nicole Fox Fenlon, known as Coco, who died by suicide after years of being cyber bullied in 2018, prompting her mother to successfully campaign for stronger laws In Ireland to tackle online bullying. “We must deliver a Europe where everyone feels at home. Where girls like Coco from Ireland are protected from their tormentors,” Ms Metsola told parliamentarians.
Currently the European Parliament can only amend draft legislation that is proposed by the EU’s executive arm, the European Commission. Ms Metsola said MEPs needed to be given powers to introduce laws.
“The parliament has long been asking for this...It was a demand that was asked for and actually committed to five years ago. We expect there to be a serious discussion on how to implement this. It will require a treaty change but we also need institutional commitment.”
The vote to elect Ms Metsola as chair initiated the first voting session of the parliament, which is sitting in its second location in Strasbourg, France, following European elections last month. On Thursday MEPs will vote on whether parliament will confirm Dr von der Leyen as commission president for a second term, with the result expected to be tight.
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