International

SP Member of Parliament Sadet Karabulut today won Parliament’s support for her proposal to put a stop to Brussels’ meddling in the social housing rental sector. Her plan means that Home Affairs Minister Piet Hein Donner must now go to Brussels to tell the authorities there to stop interfering in national housing policy. ‘Thanks to the EU, people earning more than €33,000 per year will no longer be eligible for social housing, although on such a wage it’s scarcely possible to buy a house or apartment,’ Karabalut explains. ‘Donner must now go to Brussels to tell them that he can no longer agree to this threshold, that it must be raised.’

The EU proposal to specify what level of income you can be on in the Netherlands before you are eligible for social housing led to widespread disquiet amongst tenants. Thousands of people on modest incomes would be caught between two stools. Karabalut’s plan, now adopted by Parliament, means that the government must return to Brussels to negotiate to ensure that the norms are modified.

“People on average incomes must not become the victims of Brussels’ mania for interference,” Karabalut insists. “Donner must go to Brussels and come back with a new plan, one which ensures that the EU cannot determine who can and can’t live in our social housing.”