26 Sept 2025
Fire Safe Europe calls for affordability and sustainability to go hand in hand with safety
The European Parliament’s Special Committee on the Housing Crisis (HOUS) has released its draft report on decent, sustainable and affordable housing. This important milestone opens a key window of opportunity to ensure that fire safety is made explicit as a fundamental pillar of EU housing policy — alongside affordability, sustainability and energy performance.
As the EU accelerates renovation, energy efficiency and new construction, Fire Safe Europe stresses that no housing policy can be truly affordable or sustainable without being fire-safe. Safety must be embedded from the outset, not treated as a secondary or optional consideration.
In this context, Fire Safe Europe calls on the European Parliament to ensure that the final report:
Recognises fire safety as a core pillar of EU housing policy, on equal footing with affordability, sustainability and energy performance;
Provides targeted protection for vulnerable groups, including older people and those affected by energy poverty, who are often most exposed to fire risks;
Ensures that the energy transition is fire-safe, including for rooftop photovoltaic (PV) systems, on-site battery storage and electric vehicle (EV) charging in covered parking areas;
Supports EU-level coordination and best-practice sharing, while fully respecting the principle of subsidiarity.
Fire Safe Europe will continue to engage constructively with Members of the European Parliament and EU institutions to ensure that fire safety is fully integrated into Europe’s future housing framework.