SOCIAL HOUSING : FRENCH AID DISPUTED IN COMPLAINT TO COMMISSION.

There has been a new development in the crusade' by private owners against social landlords. The Union nationale de la propriete immobiliere (UNPI), a French association of private property owners, has revised the complaint it lodged with the European Commission in May 2012. It unveiled at a press conference, on 20 November, the content of new accusations backing up its criticisms of social housing, as defined and financed in France. The content of these objections, seen by Europolitics social, differs from the initial objections in terms of their objective and nature.

The UNPI points out in its invitation to the press that its complaint denounces a situation that is troubling in terms of a distortion of competition between low-rent housing and the private sector on the housing rental market in France. These objections "demonstrate that public housing costs the state and regions/municipalities 21 billion every year, but that there is no real monitoring of this aid. In addition, 75% of public social housing is built where there is no manifest need (2012 Court of Auditors report)". For the association, this justifies the opening of an in-depth investigation by the Commission on the basis of Article 108(2) TFEU (state aid incompatible with the internal...