04-05-07













From left: Paul Louis Mary, President of CECODHAS, Juhan Parts, Estonian Minister for Finance and Communication, Andres Jaadla and Marit Otsing of the Estonian Housing Cooperatives Union

As part of the CECODHAS Structural Funds 2007-2013 awareness raising campaign, Paul Louis Marty, the CECODHAS President, met the newly appointed Estonian Minister of finances and communication, Juhan Parts on April 19th in Tallinn. Mr Marty presented CECODHAS and its main goals and insisted on the importance of using the Structural funds available for social housing, urban renewal and energy efficiency.

The CECODHAS delegation was informed that to date the Estonian government plans to allocate only 0.5% instead of the possible 3% of the budget of the Cohesion policy to housing. A worrying development for the CECODHAS Estonian Member, the Estonian Housing Cooperatives Union (EKYL). Paul Louis Marty also met Kristiina Ojuland the Estonian Parliament Vice president and Green party MPs Toomaus Trapido and Maret Merisaar, to further raise awareness on the issue. The meeting coincided with the first Baltic Housing Conference.

The conference, organised by the EKYL, attended by 100 participants, included contributions on the development of the housing cooperatives movement, in Sweden for example, as well as the Finnish housing policies by Inga Osbjer (HSB, Sweden) and Jouko Heino (VVO, Finland). CECODHAS President, Paul Louis Marty, who also spoke at the conference, reminded the participants of the important role played by EKUL as a member of CECODHAS, particularly in the Structural Funds negociations. The speeches of the Latvian, Bulgarian and Russian housing sector representatives showed the issues faced in their countries in the sectors of management, maintenance and the necessary renewal of the housing stock which is dire need of energy retor-fitting.

The future of housing policies in Baltic countries and more particularly the Structural Funds reform was the central theme of the conference. The main concern expressed by the EKYL is Estonian government's plan to allocate 0.5%  of Structural Funds to housing and energy efficiency, in spite of the 3% allowed by the European Commission. They believe that this amount will not sufficient to deal with  the challenge faced by cooperatives, particularly in view of the insufficient amount of national financing.

Find out more about the CECODHAS Structural Funds campain here