Petition of European local and regional representatives for a European social housing action framework 1. We, elected representatives of regions and cities in Europe, call on the European Union to set out a European social housing action framework in order to ensure consistency with the rights enshrined inter alia in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and between the various EU policy instruments which impact housing policies (State aids, structural funding, energy policy, action to combat poverty and social exclusion, health policy); 2. We urge compliance by the European Union with the relevant provisions of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (Article 14 and Protocol No 26), under which public authorities are free to determine how the social housing sector is organised and funded and what types of households are eligible. 3. Affordable social housing is a central pillar of social cohesion and justice and should not be only limited to the needs of disadvantaged groups. Renting affordable social housing needs to be accessible to a broad part of the population in order to avoid social and spatial exclusion as well as segregation, and to promote a social mix. 4. Member states and local and regional authorities should guarantee the security of tenures and fair rents by implementing a social tenancy and rent law. Member states and local and regional authorities should support affordable housing options like the supply of rental and cooperative housing. A minimum quota for social rental housing should be set in areas with dense population and in regions with high migration rates. 5. We emphasise that the housing sector (and the social housing sector in particular) plays a contracyclical economic role through the reduction of energy dependency, the support brought to construction and renovation industries and, consequently, to sustainable local employment that cannot be off-shored. 6. We take the view that social housing investment should be considered not as an expenditure but as a productive investment that pays off on the long term through better health and social well-being, access to the labour market, empowerment of people and energy savings. In terms of quality public spending, the investment in social housing should therefore be taken away from calculations relating to the 3% budget deficit target.