UGT has registered before the European Committee of Social Rights of the Council of Europe a collective claim against the Kingdom of Spain for breach the European Social Charter in its article 31, which establishes that “every person has the right to housing.”
This was announced at a press conference by the general secretary of UGT, Pepe Alvarezthe deputy general secretary of the union, Fernando Luján, and the head of Housing at UGT, Ana Isabel Gracia.
«This lawsuit is a lawsuit against the Kingdom of Spain and, therefore, it is a lawsuit that involves each and every one of the competent administrations in this matter, which is not only the State Government, but fundamentally the autonomous communities and the city councils in our country,” explained Álvarez.
The union leader has stressed that, to the extent that the European Social Charter maintains the right to housing As a right of EU citizens in the countries adhering to this treaty, UGT intends with this claim that the right to housing can be exercised before the competent Spanish public administrations.
“We have decided promote legal initiatives so that this right can be exercised in our country, which is clearly threatened,” stated Luján, who has denounced that only 2.5% of the housing built in Spain is social housing.
The union’s 64-page claim states that Spain fails to comply with the provisions of Article 31 of the Revised European Social Charter, which establishes housing as a right.
«Our Constitution includes as a right in its Article 41 the right to housing. However, it has not been a right that has been exercised, but has become a guiding principle of economic and social policy in our country (…) We, with this claim, want to change the paradigm of the right to housing in our country so that it stops being a housing policy and becomes a right to housing,” Luján explained.
The deputy general secretary of the union has indicated that if the claim is successful, the right to housing “will be a right that can be implored, that can be requested before the courts at the moment in which any of the Public Administrations denies people this right. ». Luján has criticized that the Housing Law implemented by the coalition Government “does not have imperative mandates”, since verbs such as “favor, promote, encourage, contribute or, above all, may” are used too much.
“There is nothing imperative, principles are being established that may or may not be exercised, but of course they do not entail the effective exercise of a fundamental right, such as the right to housing,” he denounced. Beyond this claim, Pepe Álvarez has argued that Spain needs «more agreement between the competent administrations and less debate» about things that don’t really get to the bottom of the housing problem.
In that sense, he has defended how “absolutely necessary” a great agreement between the competent administrations. «On few issues in our country are the powers as fragmented as is the case of housing and, therefore, we require that effort of consensus, that effort of agreement so that, I repeat, in the short, medium and long term, this problem “does not become a very serious problem from a social point of view,” stated Álvarez.
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