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PETI European Parliament
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Marian Muro
Thank you. Thank you very much, and thank you for giving us an additional opportunity to appear before the parliament. This time, my speech is going to be aimed at defining or trying to quantify and put in black and white what the impact has been on temporary rental contracts or tourist contracts in this housing crisis. That is affecting the whole of Europe.
I always try to start by saying that I'm not here to try to convince any of you about what we need to do, whether we should even have temporary or not, or whether there is necessarily a need or otherwise for tourist accommodation.
The reason that I am here today is to talk to you about the reality. And this is the reality for Catalonia and Barcelona, which is much more advanced in regulation than other member states. And I also want to explain both sides of this phenomenon. The positive and the negative, to what's going on at the moment to ensure that this parliament has scientific data on this phenomenon and then can legislate accordingly.
Knowing what already exists. The housing crisis is a crisis that has spared no part of Europe. We're seeing that short-term rentals, particularly tourist accommodation, has resulted in a very dangerous situation because this is a real crisis. And it's a culmination of other factors as well, mainly structural factors.
The situation in Spain is also an extremely complicated situation. If we look at the prices and the rental market, the housing market in general, they've gone up by 57.47% since 2015. Demographic changes also is one of the underlying causes. And, in 2015, there was a net creation of accommodation, which completely disappeared by 2023. Now we're talking about figures being six times higher than they were in 2015.
But we can't just stop there. Because there's no supply being created either. Since 2010, we've seen the lowest level of new housing since the 1970s. 83,000 units, on average per year, which is far lower than the 315,000 units that were registered around 2010.
So I'm just saying that we are in a country where there are 4,000,004 housing places that people are locked out of, and that's 14% of the supply. But short term rental contracts only represent 1.3% of the housing stock.
Overall.
Marian Muro
And I can point to a recent report that was carried out by the International Monetary Fund in 2026 on the Spanish economy. Which clearly shows that Spain has to take much more robust action on the housing crisis that it is going through at the moment. And it really has to focus on three priorities, urban development programs, there has to be more space available for building, and there has to be more flexibility in the bureaucratic processes.
And the IMF as well as the Spanish government have said this in March 2020. I want to mention that study because it's very recent. It's true that all of these studies that have been carried out on short-term rentals, and I'm here, I'm very much open to you if you can point me in the direction and show that if there's anything that we can look at in greater detail. But we haven't seen any direct correlation between tourist accommodation and the housing crisis. And I'm sure you will understand why.
Because of the magnet, the magnitude that we're talking about when it's 1.3% of the overall housing stock of a country. So now let's hone in on the example of Catalonia and Barcelona because they have done something very well. Now things are going a little worse, but they started out doing quite well. And if we look at all of their experiences, we always have to learn lessons. Lessons need to be productive, and they need to help us manage much more effectively the situation that we're dealing with.
Catalonia was one of the first communities to regulate on short term rentals in 2012. Barcelona did the same thing. At that time, from all of the housing stock that the city had, 1% was allocated to tourist accommodation. 1% of the overall housing stock from the whole city is for tourism accommodation.
I can't underline that enough. But there was a regulation that was carried out in 2012, with a great deal of effort that came from the local authority and the private sector as well. To try to deal with to clamp down on this, illegal rentals.
There are only a certain number of tourist licenses. It's not only 1%. But this has become a profession now. And we have data from the local authority itself that talks about the illegal rentals on offer at the moment, which is an unbelievable scale. We have illegal accommodations springing up everywhere that belong to certain mafia, and they're all in cahoots with each other.
So with the Barcelona authority having adopted this law, 2012, in 2023, it announced that it would eliminate the licenses for two for tourist accommodation in 2028. Now we'll see the mayor of Barcelona at the time was speaking about renovation.
We're not talking about renovation here. We're talking about tourism licenses, permits, with all of the rights that go along with those permits. That you have to have for any city.
But this is clearly the abuse of a right that homeowners enjoy. And this announcement that was made about eliminating all of these tourism rentals with a political and ideological measure as well, to try to get us out of this deadlock, out of this housing crisis.
Measures were being adopted that were proven inefficient, and they weren't bringing about any type of improvement in the housing crisis. These measures are clearly discriminatory in nature. They're not proportionate. We're talking about three basic principles here.
That were adopted under that I'm putting before this committee in the European Parliament. I would just like to hone in again on Barcelona. You might wonder why I'm so focused on Barcelona. It's because the mayor of Barcelona didn't like to be used as an example at the time of this of being a model for Europe.
And there was an article that was published in the cities in 2025. And in this article, last year, which was also shared by Barcelona, they talked about using the city of Barcelona as an example with all of the resources, the effort had been made, and the restrictions as well.
They had managed to find a balance 1% of the supply, professional, high quality, and rentals. This isn't just something that I'm saying. This is well documented, and the town hall has also recognized these facts as well.
It's a bit strange when we try to associate, and apologies for talking so much about Barcelona and the Spanish government as well. The increase in prices and in the cost of housing as well, and the link between that and tourist accommodation.
And perhaps you can tell me. What are we supposed to do? With tourist accommodation when it comes to the increase in housing costs in Barcelona since 2014.
Not one additional license has been granted in Barcelona. Since 2014, Barcelona has had a ban on the granting of licenses for tourist accommodation. But unlike between 2014 and 2026, rental prices have gone up by 61%.
And is this because of tourist accommodation? You tell me. A model of control. Of housing that has to be verified. And we were told there was this number of tourist accommodation places, which helped to contribute to diversification and which would also distribute the wealth generated by tourism.
Because of this diversity of accommodation that the city of Barcelona has, jobs have been created. Wealth has been created, and there are also some lessons as well. And peep it's an option as well for people to be able to visit their family there or to travel the world. And one fact that I thought was quite interesting was those 15,600,000 visitors that visited Barcelona.
That's a high number, admittedly. 2.86 were staying in tourist accommodation. Everyone else were staying in other types of accommodation, namely hotels. That was about 11,000,000 visits, 23% were in tourist accommodation, apartments where people were renting them.
Either people were staying there on business, etcetera, and they were looking for an alternative. High quality accommodation. And they wanted to see that they had a much more accessible price. To pay for that accommodation.
Marian Muro
What. We would like to ask from this parliament, from the committee, because of this new housing accessible housing regulation, we want to ensure that that regulation puts in place the parameters that are needed to guarantee proportionality, lack of discrimination when it comes to the measures that have been announced. We know that there is an alliance of mayors at the moment and that they are calling for measures, for criteria as well to try to deal with these, its issues, and we totally agree on the necessity to do so. But this can't just be down to the whim of the local authorities. What we have to do is to preserve not only these rights to proportionality, etcetera, but also the rights that many families have to be able to travel.
And there's also the social sustainability as well, in the broader sense of the term.
Bogdan Rzońca
Thank you. Thank you very much indeed. It has been very clear. Thank you for your presentation. We will now move on to our second speaker.
I'm very pleased to give the floor to Mr. Antonio Riera, who will talk about the impact of overtourism on consumer prices and the local costs of living. He will also look into the spillover effect, and its impact on the residents, prices of grocery goods, prices of services and tourist retail replacing essential goods.
Antonio Riera
Thank you. You, Chair, members of the committee.
Thank you very much for inviting me to take part in this session. It's an opportunity to share some reflections from the Balearic Islands, a European region where tourism has, for more than seven decades, been a decisive force of economic, social, and territorial transformation.
I'd like to start from a clear premise. Tourism can no longer be approached solely as a sector or as a simple balance of positive and negative impacts to be maximized, minimized, corrected, compensated.
This. Logic has been useful because it's allowed us to recognize both tourism's contribution to activity, income, and employment. And has also allowed us to look at its environmental, social, and territorial pressures.
But today, this vision is no longer sufficient. In territories where tourism reaches high intensity, it creates a genuine system. It activates businesses, employment, infrastructure, housing, mobility, natural, and cultural resources. Of course, also institutions, regulatory frameworks, and social dynamics. Therefore, the current challenge is not only to balance costs and benefits of tourism, but also to govern the system.
And we have to govern it in a manner that will strengthen the social, economic, and environmental capacities of the destination regions. In Spain and particularly the Balearic Islands, we very much welcome the fact that tourism is occupying an increasingly central place on the European agenda.
This evolution is also present in the main international frameworks. World Economic Forum has progressively shifted its approach from competitiveness with tourism to tourism development. This change is not merely a terminological one. It means moving from measuring the capacity to compete on the tourism market to assessing a set of factors and policies that enable destination regions.
To articulate and sustain a tourism system that is sustainable, resilient, and conducive to societal progress. The European agenda is also moving in this, including tourism on the 14 key industrial ecosystems by the commission, does not really recognize its productive relevance, but also gives strategic responsibility to tourism. It can act as an ally in addressing the major challenges that Europe is facing.
Along the same lines, the European Committee of the Regions has recently supported an opinion in favor of a more balanced and adaptive management of tourism. Has to be balanced because it must harmonize the society, economy, and environment. And adaptive because it must rely on data, indicators, participation, and continuous evaluation in order to adjust policies to the evolution of demand, territorial limits, and the needs of the resident population.
And this parliament, through the implementation of the new rules to improve short-term rentals, has placed this decisive issue on the table. The need to organize the relationship between tourist users of property and the territory better, and the living conditions of the resident population. From this perspective, the issues we're talking about today, the impact on consumer prices, the local cost of living, and the replacement of essential commerce by a visitor-oriented retail should not be understood as tangential or secondary to tourism. Quite the contrary, these are central issues.
In helping us to address the extent to which a destination region has the structural conditions required to sustain tourism development that is sustainable, resilient, and conducive to societal progress. The idea I'd like to defend today is quite simple.
Resident affordability is not a side effect of tourism. It's a structural condition for sustainable tourism development. By resident affordability, what I mean is the capacity of the local population in the context of high tourism intensity.
Intensity.
Antonio Riera
To sustain material living conditions that are compatible with their economic capacity and with effective access to the goods, services, and basic functions of the territory. We're not talking therefore only about housing, although housing is central.
We're talking about three complementary divisions. Housing affordability, which is linked to the access and maintenance of the main residence. Cost of living affordability. This is related to the cost of basic goods and services. And local commercial functionality, and this is linked to the preservation of a network of commerce and services that are also oriented towards the needs of the resident population.
And this is a highly significant issue for the EU. According to our estimates, of the 234 EU regions, 215 are currently active as tourism destinations. If we look at the ratio of accommodation places per 100,000 inhabitants, and we focus on those regions that have over 2,000 places per 100,000 inhabitants. Then we get to 129 regions.
A 129 regions, including the Balearic Islands, in which tourism begins to require relevant structural presence. However, we have to be rigorous in looking at this issue. It's not just a question of saying that tourism is the single direct or automatic cause of rising house prices. Or the cost of living. Prices respond to multiple factors.
Disposable income, housing supply, regulation, energy. Transport, productive structure, taxation, or demographic change. But we can't ignore that in territories of higher tourism, visitor demand interacts with all of these factors and may exacerbate certain tensions. The issue, therefore, is an important one.
Let me look at Spain. Spain offers a useful field to observe this phenomenon. In the field of housing, the cost of owner-occupied housing has increased by 44.2% in the last ten years. But in the six regions with the highest tourist intensity, those are the regions which have seen the biggest increase in cost of housing. This evolution also helps us to understand why expenditure for housing makes up a large share of total spending for families.
This is particularly the case in certain regions. In the Balearic Islands, 27.4% of total household expenditure is associated with housing. This does not prove direct correlation, but in high tourism intensity regions, the cost of accommodation can compromise other household expenditure.
Also. An issue of the cost of living in Spain and particularly the Balearic Islands. The increase in consumer goods has increased significantly more than GDP. In Spain, the inflation is thirty four point one. But, in the Balearic Islands, it's been above that.
There are other important issues which are difficult to measure. Changes in local commerce. For example. In some areas and neighborhoods, supply tends to adapt to tourists more than inhabitants. This has an economic effect, but also means that essential commerce is displaced.
Which has a territorial and social effect. The main issue, however, is not whether there should be more or less tourism. The question is how to improve tourism. We need to have development which is capable of integrating economic and social sustainability as a critical factor in the progress and well-being of society.
At Implsa Beleas, we're trying to contribute to this tax through developing a tourism development act index, which is part of the framework and methodology of the World Economic Forum. Tourism intensity and tourism development are not the same thing. There are some regions with high tourist intensity with very little tourist development, and, conversely, there are also regions where they have very good tourism development.
So what do we recommend in the light of all of this? Basically, three things. First of all, that this parliament should act in a number of areas. I'm concluding now.
Incorporate resident affordability as an explicit dimension of the economic and social sustainability of tourism development. Secondly, promote regional comparative matrices that make it possible to identify risk profiles. Not all tourism regions face the same tensions. Thirdly, to strengthen coordination between tourism policies and other policy areas.
Housing, commerce, mobility, taxation, special planning, and so on. I'm finishing. I want to finish by saying that I believe Europe should be able to lead the fight for local affordability in tourist areas.
And if they continue to make progress on this area, the Impulsive Foundation would ask you to analyze our document it's been created for my parliamentary speech, and so that you can enjoy our research.
Thank you.
Bogdan Rzońca
Thank you very much indeed. And we move on to the next speaker, I will give the floor to Mister Rodriguez from the University of Extremadura. Who will speak about the impact overtourism has on services. In particular, he will focus on infrastructure, public transport, waste disposal, water, and public order.
Chair.
Raúl Rodríguez
Esteemed members of the committee, thank you very much for inviting me to address you today. It's a real pleasure to be able to take part today in such an important committee, which is such a topical one at that.
In Extremadura, tourism is an undeniable driving force in the region. We have human, we have three UNESCO sites Akathe, which is a city, Beja since 1986, Merida as well because of its archaeological remains. And we also have a monastery as well, which was recognized in 1993. We're extremely proud to be able to share this heritage that we have and our culture with anyone who wants to visit us.
However, given that we are public sectors, we've reached a turning point. And now we're trying to look ahead and make sure that we don't make the same mistakes as elsewhere. Or that we sort of don't find ourselves in the same situation that others have described today.
We cannot only try to beat our records for visitors. Urban management requires us to think deeply about the capacity that we have to welcome visitors. There are physical limitations to it. Limits and social limitations as well. And if we go over those thresholds, because of the experience that we have with tourism, then that seriously impacts the life of residents.
Exceeding those limits in a city such as ours with so much heritage where we have structural challenges, water resources, etcetera, mean having to manage our infrastructure. Protecting the housing, and also offering robust public services.
Raúl Rodríguez
If there's also the cost of maintaining these cities as well, which must not fall upon residents alone. Citizen support would collapse for tourism if that were the case.
This is why my presentation, I'm going to talk about not slowing down tourism, but managing it. And I'm going to come forward with a number of tangible measures to manage this. Financing services tourists use, and ensuring that our economic sustainability never comes at the cost of the quality of life offered to our residents.
When it comes to the excessive increase in prices, there is this theory of tourist gentrification. Which was started in 2005 and went all the way through to 2018, which looked at changes in prices and how it was affecting a number of different areas. Having a critical impact, namely on the housing market. The proliferation of tourist-use dwellings reduces the residential rental stock. And local residents may complain about that, about the restrictions on supply in their local areas.
There's also the rent gap theory. Applied to the tourism sector. In addition, that local commerce, as explained by mister Rierro, my colleague, has also been replaced by franchises. And souvenir shops. All of this has a significant impact on the cost of living, which goes up for citizens living there.
Therefore, we are suggesting a number of measures to try to resolve this type of problem. Such as having strict urban regulations which are being adopted in other areas as well, such as rolling out moratoria on new licenses or zoning restrictions. Or calling for independent access requirements.
We also have to look at the platforms such as Booking or Airbnb, which we're all familiar with. They have to share their real data with us. And they also have to remove listings without official numbers in line with new EU short term rental regulations.
When it comes to the tensions between infrastructure and public transport, we also have to think about whether they are sized for residents, not for peaks in demand, which might double or triple these figures, that would also generate congestion, delays, and which would accelerate the deterioration of public assets.
Made available to society by public authorities. To that end, in some regions, specific tourist taxes have been introduced. Where the tax is purely aimed at improving public transport or also at wear and tear on infrastructure. And an important task is to have clear and transparent communication with the residents and tourists alike. To ensure that management is direct and transparent for everyone.
There's also the use of big data. This can be used to predict peaks in visitor numbers and reinforce transport lines in real time or redirect traffic towards alternative routes. When it comes to managing waste and water consumption, according to recent research, there's a significantly greater impact on the environment.
Tourists generate more daily waste than a resident. And depending on the model of tourism, whether we're talking about swimming pools or golf courses, can consume significantly more water. This has been recognized as a real source of conflict, and that peaks in times of holidays. Given that there are some regions such as mine which have faced structural drought and the rest of the Iberian Peninsula, this can create a direct social conflict.
One idea is that a number of strategies could be put in place by the administration to try to have pay-as-you-generate waste systems, for example, with differentiated waste charges for tourist establishments, which also offer bonuses for reduction in waste or recycling.
Also, mandatory water audits could be introduced. Large numbers of tourists who consume these resources would be required to reuse systems or save devices in order to maintain or renew their licenses.
On the subject of public safety and coexistence, this is something that is causing a number of concerns. Citizens at the moment. John Appl, in 1992, developed the social exchange theory. Which is adapted to the tourism sector. It's a pioneering model to look at perceptions among local residents of the effects of tourism.
Mass tourism often comes with problems. Night, noise, overcrowding, to name but three. And there also has to be police measures adopted as well. Sanctions have to be applied.
And we also have to think about fines for non-residents. We want to make sure that we could, in we could have stricter coexistence ordinances and severe sanctions for noise, drinking alcohol in the street, and also visual pollution. Which would bring an immediate fine for non-residents.
We could create civic mediators or agents where nonpolice personnel would be deployed. Of course, this would all be funded by this tourist tax, and they would patrol any hotspots in order to keep people informed, to mediate, and also to relieve some pressure on local police.
There has been a paradigm shift. We've seen this in that we've gone from looking at measure tourism being measured by the number of visitors and starting instead to measure it by the net positive impact. This is a question of socioeconomic profitability and the cost of public services. And many public administrative bodies are incorporating this into the way that they manage tourism. A more realistic approach is required.
Ensure that tourism doesn't disappear altogether, but there does have to be a transition towards a different system. And it has to be intelligently managed. The key here that we have to take on board is that we have to look at the negatives. We have to think about the cost of public services. That are required for tourism, and that must not fall on the shoulders of local taxpayers, which would and there has to be a positive effect generated.
Bogdan Rzońca
Very well.
Splendid. Thank you very much. For all those presentations. Now we will have a round of questions and answers. Please be concise.
We do not have a lot of time at our disposal. There is also an interpretation. There are petitions that will follow this point on the agenda. So please be precise and concise.
1.5 minutes for now. This is the time that you have at your disposal to ask a question. On behalf of the EPP, madam Estado.
Rosa Estaràs Ferragut
Thank you. You, chair. And I would like to thank the three speakers as well. To Marianne, Anthony, and Raul, they are very good speakers. Think in the future, we're going to have to focus on citizen well-being, as we've heard.
And as Raul said, we can't only think about GDP and tourism generated income, but we're also going to have to think about the effect that tourism has on the quality of life for the local population.
Tourism is positive, but we have to ensure that it continues to improve the quality of life for locals. And affordability for the locals. Every destination is different, so we have to look at different factors when we're looking at remote areas or islands or other types of regions.
We need adaptive management, as we heard. We need to work with data and be able to modify what we're looking at, based on this adaptability. There's the European Union tourism strategy, as you rightly said, and this whole diverse tourism should be seen as an opportunity, not a problem. We know that tourism is important for the labour market. For cities and for smaller towns, and that it can help to generate income.
But as we've heard, we have to make sure that we focus much more on higher quality and lower quantity. We have to ensure our diversification, to ensure the right balance between residents and tourists.
We need to have more participation in governance so that all regions can participate. We have to be much more cautious when it comes to looking at issues of efficient water use, transport mobility, energy, and as Marianne said, short term rentals have to be regulated. But it's not just through short term rentals that we're going to solve the housing issue.
And these are all ideas that have to be incorporated into the future tourism strategy. Our region, the Balearic Islands, is a real reference point, and as mister Riedra said, they can help to set an example for the whole of Spain is beautiful.
Sandra Gómez López
Thank you very much to all three speakers for your presentations. I also want to provide some context on why we are here in this petitions committee because we receive on a constant basis a feeling of unhappiness, of complaints, etcetera, that citizens are facing, especially in larger European cities. And this is what we really want to talk about.
How what can we do to deal with this problem across Europe? We know that this is a national competence. Which is completely devolved to the local authorities. But in reality, we share all of these problems, and there's the same diagnosis that we draw from everywhere. So we need to come up with either the same solutions or similar ones.
I know that tourism is very important. I know perfectly well that when we're speaking about smart governance, smart management of tourism, there are problems that we have with outsourcing, delocalization, products, product-based tourism, etcetera. We've looked at everything. And I think that we've been reasonable in our management. But we are not completely cut off from reality today.
Of tourism. And these problems are shared everywhere. So there are three topics, housing. We cannot solve the problem we're trying to resolve because there's a problem that people are becoming more and more angry, Chair, because they're seeing that, yes, rental prices are affecting them directly.
And then there's the question of the tourist tax. And I know that this was mentioned as well. I would like to know what the opinion of the rest of the panel is because this contribution to public services would certainly be used. Okay.
Thank you very much.
Speaker 11
Mister, thank you, chair, and thank you very much to the three speakers. I have a few questions, and you can answer them if you think it's appropriate. We're here to talk about tourism, but when I listen to you, it seems that overtourism can actually lead to underprovision, undersupply. There seems to be an imbalance, as you've said. Demand is up, but the supply doesn't seem to be responding.
So questions, what types of measures have been adopted in Spain, sorry, to encourage the building of hotels that might be able to compete with short term rentals? What kind of measures have been adopted in Spain in recent years so that these 4,000,000 houses can be put back on the market.
The housing market or short-term rental markets. The it will help them to fight illegal occupation. So what's been done about that? You've spoken a lot about tourism and housing.
Listening to all of you speak, it's clear that although you say you're not saying there's a link, you are focusing on that. And I think it's not always exactly the case.
In 2025, the price of housing went up the most in Castilla, alone Aragon, Estrematuria, Murcia, and Madrid. Not in Catalonia, not in the Balearics, and these are from the national statistics industry.
So in your work, have you taken into account that Spain's population has increased by 6% in recent years because of foreign immigration?
Nora Junco García
Thank you very much, chair. I too would like to thank all three speakers for their three very interesting presentations. Like my colleague, Mister Bushade, I am also looking at this topic of housing. I'm part of the housing committee here. And I understand, I think that it's not just a question of our interpretation here.
This is a question of tourist apartments, etcetera, and that's not a problem of housing. There are two separate problems. We're short of a million housing places in Spain. We really need to redress the balance.
I thought it was very interesting to listen to what you had to say about tourism and the use of technology because that's vital. That's something that we have available to us.
We can manage or waste it in this way. Etcetera. Tourism is growing, but infrastructure isn't. So we need to try to redress that balance in regions such as this, as the Balearic Islands, for example, where the situation is serious.
When it comes to tourist accommodation, etc., that's not going to resolve the shortage of housing, and it's not going to decrease prices automatically either. So, I have a question for Miss Marianne Moro.
About the new initiative on fair housing. This is something that we're working on in the Housing Committee. We're trying to regulate these situations in areas of tension. I'd like to know what your recommendations are.
Experience that you have in Barcelona. Thank you.
Great.
Very well.
Thank you.
Speaker 13
On behalf of the left group, Madam Contura, Mister President, I will speak in Greek.
Selena Fkaris.
Elena Kountoura
I would like to thank the people who presented their ideas here.
But the only thing I have to say is housing is not a privilege.
It is a social right. And you are entitled to a decent life. But sometimes in tourist areas, especially on islands, finding affordable housing is a daily race to survive. We, in Greece, are the Polynesia of Europe. 6,000 islands, some islets, and 200 are inhabited with hundreds and thousands of inhabitants. So their right to remain on the spot and to make sure that public services work correctly are undermined by the lack of housing, by the prices for rents, by the exploding phenomenon of short term rentals. And when doctors, policemen, teachers are unable to live where they work, then it's not just a housing issue.
It is a growth issue. It's a development issue. It's a social issue for all of Europe. In our resolution for viable tourism, we endorsed my amendment on a European framework to deal with short-term rentals.
So I'd like to ask you this. What are the regulatory interventions? What are the policies that, in your experience, are required immediately? And should we have specific measures for islands? Thank you.
The touch. Madame Zakaria.
Maria Zacharia
Over. Tourism is here presented as growth, but for many people, it just means very high rents, not being able to find a house, low wages, exhaustion when you're working, and cities that no longer belong to their inhabitants.
We see people who work in tourism in Greece not to be able to afford a flat where they work. Islands and neighborhoods which are now investment products in short-term rentals. And waste treatment, water, public spaces, they're disappearing.
The question is not do we want tourism, but who benefits from this kind of tourism. Is it local communities? Or is it investment funds and big consortia? Yes. Europe wants to find affordable housing for everybody, and not just look into how much money we're making.
So the European Union should have a framework for sustainable tourism with restrictions, with binding rules on short term rentals, and also a calculation of how much specific areas can carry, support for the purchase of housing, and a special clause for labor rights in the tourism sector. Growth is not just arrivals with tourism. It also has to take into account if people are able to live and work in their own homes.
Mother Holmes? Yes.
Speaker 16
Thank you, Chair, and thank you to the rapporteurs. To the speakers, sorry. Yes. When we're talking about this, it's important to put residents at the heart of any policy, when we're talking about tourism or housing. Because we don't want them to feel excluded from their own cities and neighborhoods.
We were talking about Barcelona. I have a couple of comments. But first of all, the constitutional court said that the limitations on tourist rentals in Barcelona was legitimate. In certain to a certain extent.
In La Palma in the Balearics, they have very good governors as mister, and they're doing a very good job.
In the zoning laws and moratoria. Epp came to power and passed certain legislation, but what they did wasn't necessarily in favor of the residents. So the link between tourism and housing is clear.
Studies have said it. There's a study from the European Parliament, and the housing committee has said it as well. They said it's not the only problem, but yes, short term tourist rentals are one of the problems. And that's something that we're going to have to look at working on.
My question to Mister Riera, who knows the Balearic Islands. Is resident affordability. How what do you propose to do on that? And just very briefly to finish, I was listening to Mr. Bouchardet.
In Balearics, we don't need more hotels. We need more houses for the locals. Please don't, I didn't interrupt you. Please don't interrupt me.
No. No. No. No. No.
Good.
Bogdan Rzońca
Well, we can resume. And now we will have the round of answers, you every two minutes.
Marian Muro
Was. Just listening to the last speaker. And I fully understand. We're talking about 27% of housing that has disappeared from the market. Average prices have gone up. Balearics as well.
We know the situation there. Secondly, I wanted to say on the subject of measures, measures that have to be adopted. What we are trying to say is that designating a zone as being under stress should not automatically lead to restrictions on short-term rentals.
The first consequence of a decision like that is we shouldn't be trying to optimize the housing that we have. Also, more flexibility in planning processes and license-granting procedures. There has to be a reduction of the administrative burden. We have to facilitate renovation projects and reconversion projects. Mobilize underused or empty housing, and then public-private investment partnerships as well to increase the amount of housing that is social and affordable.
Only these structures, these measures are structural measures, and they have to apply to the supply. If they don't work, it's when we have restrictions and prohibition all coming in.
And give me forty seconds. Someone spoke about what measures could be adopted. Well, I can tell you there's no one-size-fits-all solution here. Despite the fact that this committee can try all it likes, but it won't work. You can study all the destinations in the world.
Barcelona is different from Amsterdam, from Lisbon, from anywhere else.
And. Now I'm losing time.
Marian Muro
Well. I could explain to you the example of Barcelona, a tourist tax, decentralization, moratoria, restructuring, sanctions. Has the situation improved? No. Why not? Because the situation has to be properly analyzed with the multiplicity of factors involved.
Measures, yes, tourist tax, aimed at housing, at restoring the balance in the housing stock. For example, extending tourism to all regions of Catalonia. How? Efficient public transport. Not with the other measures that have proven ineffective. The measures are there, you need to know how to manage them.
Antonio Riera
Thank you, chair. Let me be clear. There is a relationship between tourism and the rising cost of rent. Yes. The data we have says that there is a positive correlation.
Is there a relationship between tourism and the inquiry in the expenditure of families on housing? The data confirmed that there is a correlation. But is there a unique direct automatic causal effect between all of this? No.
Having said all this, given what I've said, is it worth looking at issues of resident affordability when analyzing tourism? Yes. We're doing that. And the answer is no. I understand that you're not easy about this because we're talking about your citizens. But over the last twenty-five years, we've diversified, segmented, prohibited, taxed, done all of these things.
We've had a lot of tourism policies, and yet here we are today. So I'm asking you that we need to change our focus. We have to look at the market supply and demand, and we have to develop the tourism supply.
It's not just the World Economic Forum saying this. It's Europe. The world overtourism has been used on purpose because that means that you can play with supply and demand. It's you have to switch your focus. Also, the idea of internal and external causes, we have to look at. This means that you have to look at the causes that have to be corrected, but sometimes this is false.
Tourism is a system where there are very complex, different types of relationships. And they work differently in all the different tourist destination regions across Europe.
Raúl Rodríguez
I'll. Try to address some of the points that were made. Ms. Gomez, we've talked about the Catharines. And so there is this part of the public administration as well. It's about managing public resources.
And then there are people in the, and that work in the housing market in Extremadura as well. And as mister Bouchardet said, where is the problem between housing and tourism? Well, it's clear. There's a lack of building of housing in Spain, and that dates back a long way, and everyone is familiar. With that problem. Measures have been rolled out in recent years.
But there is no more housing. So what do we do? With this public right that citizens have to something that doesn't exist? That's what we have to manage. We have to look at the situation with housing.
Rather than working on promoting and then finding out that these people building housing have been doing so illegally. You're selling something to citizens and managing a good that is public and necessary. And that's all it boils down to. That's the way I perceive it.
We have the facts and figures for housing. We know the figures for tourism. And they should never be a problem because they're completely independent sectors. Of one another. If we know how the economy is managed, tourism is one of the sources that enters into this economic cycle.
And that applies to any town or city. All autonomous committees are different. As my have underlined. You can't apply the same, let's say, measures to every single autonomous community, but you can fine tune them. You can change them.
You can roll them out for every different area. Then when it comes to hotels, I think that the companies that are involved in that sector have sufficient capital to build in any city of Spain. It's a question of profitability. Tourism, when you have more tourism, you have more hotels. Then combining that with tourist infrastructure in Extremadura, they get along perfectly well.
There are no conflicts there. And I'll leave it there.
Bogdan Rzońca
Thank you very much. It was a very exciting hearing. It has been a very exciting hearing. It was a very high quality debate. Unfortunately, we are running out of time.
But we also have a second panel which is about the way forward, good practices and guidelines. Again, I'll have to ask you to stick to the time that you have at your disposal.
We are proceeding to the second part, way forward, good practice, and guidelines. I would like to invite the second round of speakers, the second panel, Ramune Gens, Bigliter Venturi, Digimov.
Paulo.
Bogdan Rzońca
And our second speaker, Mister Lavagy from Digi Grow. Our speakers will give you an update on the state of play regarding the upcoming EU strategy on sustainable tourism. They will talk about lessons learned from the project called Sustainable EU Tourism, shaping the tourism of tomorrow. And they will also discuss the implementation of short term rental regulation.
Very well, then. You have 10 minutes.
Starting from. Miss Gary. This is the chair.
Oh, sorry.
Floor. Is yours.
Ramune Gens
Good. Afternoon, everyone, and thank you for this. Welcome. I was asked to talk about the upcoming EU tourism strategy.
Some of you may know it will be published in the coming months.
We have consulted extensively with the stakeholders. It's almost ready, so bear with us. It's important to know that it will propose very practical actions to the future challenges, among which the subject that we're discussing today. We will be addressing the needs not only of the tourism industry, but also of the destinations, the communities, and visitors in a balanced way.
We are now starting from scratch. We will build on the past four years' work under the tourism transition pathway and the EU tourism agenda which supported the recovery of the tourism industry and the subsequent crisis.
We want tourism to be recognized for what it is. It is one of Europe's core industries, supporting competitiveness, quality of jobs, resilience, and regional and local development. Today's volatile geopolitical situation proves that European tourism must become more resilient and adapt quickly. Tourism is a strategic asset for Europe's economy, our regions and cities, and our global identity. So we are giving it a higher position and a higher place in the EU policy agenda.
While tourism always remains the competence of member states and, in many cases, regions, we believe that today's challenges require a stronger and better coordinated European response. The strategy will focus on key challenges raised by the stakeholders, will translate them into very practical support on the ground.
For example, it will help balance economic growth with a healthy environment and the well-being of local communities, strengthening the long term resilience. We will offer very concretely a European toolbox for the destinations. Built on existing very good practice, and scaling them and integrating the criteria that have been already applied. Be it on sustainability, on accessibility, or better management of tourism flow.
Flows.
Ramune Gens
Climate change is already changing the way we travel and the way tourism happens. So mitigation and adaptation will be very important and non-negotiable. We will help destinations to tackle unbalanced tourism flows. We have heard that while some destinations are suffering from too much tourism or unmanaged tourism, other destinations are striving to be discovered and share their values. A key pillar is also data, technology, and skills. We want to develop a fully functioning tourism data space to support the decisions that are taken based on data.
By public authorities or businesses. We will also support the uptake of digital tools, including artificial intelligence, especially among the smaller businesses to strengthen their competitiveness. We will address labor shortages and skills gaps and make tourism a more attractive future-oriented career. We will also aim to strengthen sustainable connectivity. Linking more closely with transport policy, for example, better local mobility or stronger cross-border connections, and to have more attractive sustainable long-distance travel, especially by rail.
We will step up global promotion of the Destination Europe brand so Europe continues to stand out as a quality, sustainable destination in a very competitive market. To support resilience in crisis, we are exploring also a tourism contingency network with member state administrations and with the stakeholders to share better the information and under identify, the responsive response measures.
Finally, we will reinforce governance through stronger cooperation. As sort of an alliance bringing together public and private actors to oversee the implementation of the strategy. Now concretely, how do we already today ensure that tourism benefits local communities? An important question that was raised today. One of the main objectives of the strategy is indeed to enable destinations to plan and to manage flows in an intelligent and sustainable way while balancing the needs of everybody.
We believe that destination management organizations, DMOs, would play a crucial role here. They have to work alongside the local authorities and the businesses to make tourism flows manageable on the ground. For this, we will need timely data that is interoperable and accessible, skills and know-how to apply the digital tools, including artificial intelligence.
As I mentioned, the upcoming toolbox to tackle these challenges in sustainability, accessibility, and digitalization will help the destinations as well. The objective is very simple. We want to empower the destinations with very practical solutions that can be adopted on the ground, tailored to their needs. This practical toolkit for destination should help promote better management of pressures in the hotspots, while attracting more tourists to lesser known and emerging destinations.
We will also be working to prepare commission guidelines for destinations on balance management of tourism flows. We will be building already on existing work and existing recommendations by other institutions, by the stakeholders, member states in a closed dialogue.
Through the Destination Europe campaigns, we are aiming already now at global visitors to attract and promote a better balanced tourism, especially in the hidden gems of Europe, so not the usual destinations. We are also working with the OSCD in optimizing and highlighting social impacts of tourism in the host communities with a series of workshops and good practice cases identified.
In the past two years, the commission supported hundreds of tourism destinations with a project on sustainable EU tourism, shaping the tourism of tomorrow. The emphasis was on ensuring economic, social, and cultural well-being of the local communities. We have identified key challenges and grouped the destinations for a peer to peer learning. So very concretely addressing these challenges, the destinations that have already solutions that are working. We have also developed a communication toolkit, so a very practical ready to use visual social media contact success stories, for their destinations to promote sustainable practices.
At home and also inspire the change. So to sum up, the challenges we are facing can only be addressed together with the public and private partners, and the destinations. And we do hope that the strategy that is coming will bring the opportunity.
Thank you very much.
Thank you, Chair.
Paolo Garzotti
Just complementing briefly what Ramon had just said, in particular concerning the data. In two weeks, exactly on May 20, the regulation on short term rental will end into application.
We have worked very intensively with both platforms and member states to ensure the maximum effectiveness of the regulation and the entering into application. Of course, the regulation is an opt in opt out regulation, so it depends on the willingness of the member state to implement the regulation. That will ensure to the member state the provisions of data from the platform, which are of course, very important in light of the discussion we had in the previous panel.
So meaning, the definition of measures, which could be, at the same time, profitable for the market of STR, but at the same time, which they are compliant with EU and national law.
We have from the platform the insurance that they are ready. We just received a press communication today from Airbnb, saying that they are ready to send data from May 20.
And the member state, for the time being, is a bit patchy. It situation in the sense there are a handful of member states, let's say, or six, which will be ready by May 20. And then most of them, they will have the system in place to receive data only by end of the year or beginning of the next one.
There are also a couple of member states which, for the time being, are not interested in having the regulation implemented. Thank you.
Very well.
Speaker 22
Thank you very much. We move on to Miss Erica Gary. Who is head of cabinet in the Ministry of Tourism in Italy? Thank you, Chair, honorable members. Thank you for the invitation to the opportunity to take the floor in the second panel.
Erica Guerri
Dedicated to practice and possible ways for all member states. The subject of this hearing is excessive price increase in tourist areas and over concrete one.
It concerns the daily life of local communities, housing affordability, the cost of goods and services, capacity of infrastructure to absorb visitor flows, and more broadly, the relationship between tourism and residents' quality of life.
I'd like to start from my basic point. Tourism has become a central component of both European national economies. For too long, it has been regarded as a secondary sector. Almost as a natural extension of our cultural landscape heritage. Today, however, we must recognize Itur what it is, an industry and the cross cutting policy. All the other policies have to look at tourism. As a development sector for Europe.
In Italy, this awareness has grown significantly in recent years. Tourism is no longer only about territorial promotion. It is a strategic lever for industrial policy, local development, and competitiveness. According to the World Travel Insurance Council, in 2024, the sector in Italy contributed euro 2,228,500,000,000 to the Italian economy, and supported 3,100,000 jobs.
By 02/1235, this contribution could reach 200, 82.6 billion, 3.7 million people employed. These figures tell us something simple. Generates concrete wealth in local areas not only in accommodation facilities, but also in restaurants, transports, museums, retail, crafts, agri-food, and all the local supply chains that also depend on demand. For this reason, the response to overtourists cannot simply be less tourists in general.
It must be better governed in tourism. This is the Italian receipt. We are investing in under tourists. We are working on spreading flows to different locations and in different off-peak months and seasons. We're working for a unique season all over the year.
Tour is not the only matter of arrivals and overnight stays. First and foremost, wealth generated in local areas. It means income, employment, services, urban and territorial regeneration, support for businesses, and enhancements of cultural and natural heritage. It's also an instrument of cohesion because it can bring economic opportunities to territories that would, at the right, risk marginalization.
The population loss of services. We really would like the European Union to invest in policies like the common agricultural policy in the nineties. Where we work all together to have people staying in the local villages.
We invested in touristic areas on Italian mountains, for example, in the last 3 years, from the North to the South. And we've also invested in minor islands in order to spread the flows everywhere in our country.
In Italy, the economic value of tourism is particularly evident in February. Spending by foreign travelers in our country reached 54,000,000,000 with a positive tourist balance of $221,000,000,000, around one point GDP. These figures are not abstract.
Behind the spending, there are hotels, restaurants, tourist guides, transport, museums, cultural services, retail, craft, agriculture, local products, and thousands of small and medium sized enterprises. An analysis carried out for the Ministry of Tourism helped bet to better understand this dynamic.
The ratio between GDP generated and tourism expanded tourist more than 2.5. This is an essential issue. Tourism expenditure does not remain limited to the accommodation sector. It spreads through the real economy, and supports services, retail, transport, education, health care, business service, and local supply chains. This is how Turin produces added value and can contribute if well governed the economic sustainability of services in local areas.
The work carried out by Italy in the G7 framework in 2024 has also shown that the success of tourists can no longer be measured only by number of visitors.
It must be assessed from a broader perspective the capacity to create the added value benefits for local communities, support for businesses along the value chain. Inclusion, accessibility, and sustainability. At the same time, however, Vitalia Datt also clearly shows the scale of the imbalance. In 2024, Italy recorded a new all-time high with 139,000,000 arrivals and 466,000,000 overnight stays in accommodation facilities.
Yet a significant share of these overnight stays is concentrated in a limited number of destinations. According to an internal study, a small municipalities around one quarter of national overnight stays are concentrated in the top 10 Italian municipalities, with Rome alone accounting for around 8% of total flows, followed by Milan, Florence, and Venice.
This is the key point. We are not dealing only with growth, we are dealing with concentration. The analysis of Turing's pressure shows that overtourism is often a repetitive, seasonal, and territorially predictable phenomenon.
Thus, in Italy, we started working on the under-tourism sculpture and under-tourism policies. Under Turin, by contrast, is structural. And affects a large part of the country. The challenge, therefore, is not simply to increase tourism in absolute terms, but to govern its intensity, timing, and location. It is not a limitation.
It's a major opportunity. For sustainable growth, because sustainability is environmental and social when it is economic. And if a significant share of demand is concentrated in a small portion of the territory, the mission of public policy must be met to make the rest of the country more visible, accessible, and competitive, and not less detrimental spread at risk season all over the year.
These policies need harmonization at the national level, but also at the European level. Smaller municipalities represent around 68% of the Italian municipalities. The record tourist flows account for around 20% of total overnight stays. They are therefore not a marginal component. But a structural part of the national tourism offer and the decisive level for rebalancing flows.
Between 2004 and 2005, overnight stays in small municipalities increased by 7%. And arrivals by 7.9%, with a particularly significant figure in the shoulder months. In April, overnight stays increased by more than 26%.
This shows that shoulder months between April and June and between October are no longer secondary seasons, but the real space of demand to be strengthened and guided. The challenge is to prevent this growth for concentrating once again only in iconic destinations such as Florence or Venice, and instead to build a different narrative around territories, enhancing experiences that are more suited to slower and more distributed foreign material, walking roads, religious one, autumn foliage, food and wine linked to seasonal cycles, villages, inland areas, and experience experiential tourism, out of season events, and congresses. For this potential to materialize, however, it's not enough to promote these places. They must be made accessible and competitive.
Through flexible pricing, integrated packages combining transfer and entrance tickets, efficient incentives that make the shoulder months a genuinely competitive choice compared with peak periods. In this way, tourism, if well governed, helps not only to distribute floor flows more effectively, but also to recover heritage, attracting residents, create local microeconomies, and generate demand for services that might otherwise disappear.
Thus, the role of currently underused destination becomes a session. In this framework, artificial intelligence can become a decisive tool not only for promotion, but above all, for tool management. And we are investing in AI applied on services.
According to the study prepared by the University of Droma Torberghata for the ministry, the adoption of AI could contribute by 2030 to increase in tourism expenditure by between 5-10%, reducing summer concentration of flows by between 10-15%, lowering operation costs by up to 20%, and reducing pressure on overcrowded areas by 20%.
These are prospective scenarios, but they indicate a clear direction, moving from reactive management to predictive management capable of distributing flows more effectively through the area and across the territory. However, this potential to be truly inclusive, we must avoid innovation being accessible only to large operators but also to small and medium-sized enterprises.
Thank you.
Bogdan Rzońca
Thank you so much. Let's now move on to political group. S and D, thank you, sir.
Sandra Gómez López
Well, I'd like to start with something that the previous speaker said because I think context is important in developing this debate. Here, we're in the petitions committee. We're not in transport and tourism.
We're not in the housing committee. We're in the petitions committee. Which reflects the well-being or lack of well-being in the EU. And here, we think our well-being is lacking. We see that.
And when that's the case, then we have petitions that are passed on to the committee. And we're discussing this because we have a problem that we don't know how to handle and that might become even worse in the future.
The economy linked to tourism is fundamental in Europe. But the time could come at which the population, our citizens, reject tourism as an activity. And in some cities, in some tourism centers, we're seeing that there are problems of cohabitation, which can lead to difficulties. And that's what we want to avoid.
I think the commission has a key role to play here. Tourism is something that should be handled by member states. It's national competency. But we do need to have a supranational view of this, because we're all affected. And sometimes it can become too much.
So some specific questions for the commission. I'm the only member here, chair. Sorry. There is someone else. You're right.
So indicators to measure tourism pressure to see when it's significantly having an impact on the day-to-day life of communities. More practical measures. Is the tourism considering any binding tools to reduce tourist pressure? Have you looked at the social dimension of this? The commissioner is talking about transparency, but have you also looked at any specific limits? And then the head of Cabinet, Tourist.
Speaker 24
Income should be invested in housing, and I'm wondering what you plan to do there.
Speaker 25
Thank you. You. Chair, and thank you to all the speakers. Our starting point is that, on the one hand, we have to keep tourism because it's an opportunity. It's income for all of us and all the member states.
But on the other hand, we also believe that we have to believe in well-being for the people who live in big cities. But also they have to have the right to live where they wish, particularly those living in smaller neighborhoods and villages.
And so I'm referring to the commission here. You talked about planning, flow distribution, and better management. And so Madame Venturi, you referred to better management of flows, and I'm wondering whether you can tell us a bit more about exactly what you're talking about.
And then, madam Guerri. First of all, thank you for pointing out how the Italian government is in smaller areas. It is in Italy and encouraging people to remain in their hometowns. We want to ensure that tourism is better spread out at national level both in Italy and at European level.
So how can we better develop tourism that's linked to traditions, to gastronomy, to wine, that can also be a driver. And then in big event management, how can we ensure that it's not just something that happens once, that it's something that can happen more structurally and ensure that it's better spread across the European and national territories.
Thank you.
Elena Kountoura
Thank you. I'd like to thank our panelists for everything they've said here. Europe really needs a comprehensive strategy on sustainable tourism, and we are running late. Maybe the time has come, and we look forward to this.
You've told us we should expect a text in autumn. And in the very recent resolution that we voted on here at the European Parliament, we had over 50 of my amendments. I was the tourism ministry in Greece for the period between 2015 and 19.
And sustainable tourism is the future. So in this resolution, we want a separate budget line for tourism. And specific financing for sustainable tourism. Financial and administrative support to the locations and the local authorities that need to manage their destinations, because tourism is management of tourist flows and tourist destinations.
And I stress this because many people don't know this. And they have used, which are not quite true. Are European frameworks to measure the viability and sustainability of destinations with common indicators, because you can't manage what you don't know and you can't measure.
And targeted financing for sustainable, viable infrastructure, transport hubs, and housing. So I ask the commission, will you have a plan to implement this strategy, which is followed by deadlines and budgeting lines to make sure that you finance these destinations in a way that will allow local communities to feel safe? And Missus Geary, what are best practices that have given you good results that can be measured in the best management of tourism flows?
Thank you.
Ramune Gens
Will. Start, maybe. Many questions were addressed on tourism strategy and the concrete tools. So first of all, how do we plan to concretely manage the flow? So this will be concretized in the upcoming commission guidelines. And in the toolbox for the destinations in a way.
As I said, there are a lot of good practices and a lot of measures that are working for some destinations. And, again, it has to be addressed, tailored. What works for one destination doesn't work for the other.
Among things that we can mention, there is the data. Data is necessary, not only to fix the problems, but also to predict and to anticipate. Transport, sustainable transport to reach destinations that are less known, and to decongest the hotspots.
Cooperation between different authorities, local authorities, regional authorities, public and private, there are many good examples. Recently, we were in Copenhagen, meeting the cities and discussing precisely this topic. You might have heard about the initiative Copen Bay, a very nice initiative, very simple, that is actually growing into a global phenomenon. Other destinations are also adopting it. So it's really using the concrete actions by the tourists, by the visitors that come to a destination. They help clean a city or do some things that are helping the destination.
And in return, they are paid, but not with money, but in return with the nice services and nice offers in tourism. So these kind of examples are already existing.
We don't want to reinvent the bicycle. What we want to do is to have a more comprehensive framework also to offer the dialogue for the destinations to have this peer to peer discussion. And learning, concrete learning, going to the destination, and learning from each other.
There was a question on indicators, how to measure the pressure. Already have a tourism dashboard where we are measuring intensity, the concentration in regions and locality. So some data and some indicators are already there.
Are also revising the European statistical regulation for tourism. The budget line for tourism, we have heard, many times this suggestion and this offer. You know that the new MFF is on the table in the negotiations.
I would say that we have seen from the experience in this programming period that, for example, cohesion policy has helped a lot to diversify tourism flows in many regions, also by acting across the regions.
You have also asked about the concrete timeline and the action plan. We do have in mind to accompany the strategy with a very concrete action plan, so it will be there. And the good practices, again, it will be, you know, shared and implemented together with the alliance, with the different stakeholders, and concretely with the work of the destinations.
I hope I was clear. Without having the strategy on the table, it's a bit difficult to talk, but you will see in the coming months.
Paolo Garzotti
Mister Paolo, thank you, Chair. But I don't think there are any on the short-term rental regulation, so I avoid losing time on the other panelists.
Erica Guerri
Thank you. You, Mr. President. I switched Italian to an answer to all this question, very interesting. And no. No.
I think the questions that you've put to me are all very interesting. In the perspective that we need to all have on tourism. As I said at the beginning, all public policies are cross-cutting with tourism. So it's very welcome in future European budgets. If you think about having a budget focused on tourism, the current shock that tourism is undergoing due to the crisis in the Middle East, and the focus that we all have on travels, on arrivals, and on the upcoming season, all of this planning could lead to losses of up to 2,000,000,000 for Italy alone.
So the income that tourism brings to our countries and regions can't be taken for granted. Tourism is sensitive to external shocks because it depends on mobility, connectivity, stability, and security. And security both means perceived security and consumer trust. These are all important for tourism.
We don't have a red line to stop tourism. Tourism should be welcomed because as I said before, the impact that it has, the positive consequences for other services, the income it generates are all very welcome.
In our experience, what have we done to better manage tourist destinations? First of all, we're the first country that has introduced measures for staff houses. So we give resources to businesses to ensure that they can guarantee accommodation for their workers in tourist destinations.
The government has given a 10,000,000,000 to the housing plan, and that has a specific measure for seasonal workers and workers in tourism. And these are not small measures. Because even moving our workers around within a country to ensure that you have the workforce that you need for tourism is not something easy to do.
Thank you for the questions about wine and gastronomy. Italy has the fortune of having had Italian cuisine recognized as UNESCO heritage. This has been done by UNESCO, and we have to do even more to ensure that it contributes towards the wealth of our territory. And that this Italian heritage contributes to other regions as well. We want to ensure that people can go to regions and discover protected denominations of origins and so on.
This already exists. We already have wine producers in different regions and throughout the country, we have different specialties and differences. We have, in fact, a record in the types of fruits and vegetables and specialties that are made based on these.
Big events. We think that these are the strongest tools to move people and to bring in people outside of peak seasons. We're working to ensure that we can bring other big events to Italy, and we hope to be able to measure the impact of these, and look at how we can properly manage them. There are imbalances, some events are focused in peak periods already, we want to see how we can organize events or big events that can help to create urban regeneration or new infrastructure.
We've just organized the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics this winter, and all of the infrastructure that was built for that should be our legacy and should be used in the months and years in the future.
In Santa Giulia, in Milan, the arena is going to be used for both sporting events and also musical events and concerts. We need to be able to, this should become amongst the big international stadiums like the ones we have in Turin.
We have the ATP finals in Turin that have been reaffirmed. We also have the WWE in Turin, the Crown Jewel this year. We have the Mediterranean games this summer in Puglia.
Going to have the America's Cup in Naples in 2036. We want to focus on the mountains and the south of the country, and to ensure that these events can bring infrastructure and to ensure that tourists can get to know more about these areas as well.
But the events themselves are not enough. We need proper investment, and the Italian government is working in this direction.
Bogdan Rzońca
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much, thank you very much indeed. A huge thanks go to all the speakers, experts, and members of the parliament. I think it has been very interesting. We have a lot of food for thought.
And as my colleagues have pointed out, in our committee, we get a lot of complaints about problems that need to be solved. But the entities working on infrastructure, hotels, cleanliness, those are the hosts that need to prepare their cities for tourists. They have a different perspective.
Tourism is a part of our economy. Tourism should be oriented towards those who are able to enjoy our beautiful world, our beautiful surroundings. And now we will move on. We are moving on to the petitions, to the debate on petitions.
Speaker 27
I would like to thank all our guests. We are moving on to another part of the meeting.
Bogdan Rzońca
Very. Well. Point number nine. Item number nine, agenda, let us proceed. 0023/24 submitted by Morena Pantalone.
Italian, on the recognition in Italy of Fabryomyelagia as a debilitating disease. I think the petitioner is connected online. Please, the floor is yours. You have five minutes max.
Afternoon.
Francesca Roman Orlando
Honorable members of the commission, my name is Francesca.
Roman Orlando, and I speak as the delegate of the petition and as the vice president of AMICA Association, active since 2003 in the protection of people affected by chronic and environmental diseases, such as fibromyalgia, multiple chemical sensitivity, and electromagnetic hypersensitivity.
Next, please. Fibromyalgia is characterized by widespread chronic pain, fatigue, and cognitive disorders affecting approximately 2 to 3 percent of the European population. It is included in the World Health Organization International Classification of Diseases since 2022.
Next, please. Next slide. Multiple chemical sensitivity is a multi-system condition. Next. Thank you. Multiple chemical sensitivity is a multi-system condition in which the exposure to low concentrations of common chemical substances induces symptoms affecting multiple organs.
A very recent epidemiological study estimates that in Italy the prevalence of MCS may reach up to 5 percent of the population. MCS is included in the national versions of the International Classification of Diseases in several countries, including Germany, Austria, and Spain.
Next.
Francesca Roman Orlando
Electromagnetic hypersensitivity is characterized by multisystem symptoms triggered by exposure to electromagnetic fields at very low levels. Epidemiological studies on EHA EHS indicate that this condition affects between 3 to 5 of the population in the world.
Next, please. I would like to recall that the United Nations Conventions on the Rights of Persons with Disability includes conditions that limit participation in social life even in the absence of evident organic damage.
The rights guaranteed include effective access to health care, reasonable accommodation in the workplace and at home, removal of environmental barriers where possible. In practice, these rights are not guaranteed for these diseases, which have a devastating impact on patients' ability to work, to participate in social life, and to access health and social services.
Next, how can a person with electromagnetic hypersensitivity or multiple chemical sensitivity access a hospital or a public place where people use mobile phones or wear fragrances? Today, people suffering from these conditions can cope only by relying exclusively on their own family resources.
Institutional interventions are fragmented. In Italy, for example, there are local regulations such as the prohibition of use of certain pesticides near the homes of people with MCS. But more extensive regulation is needed.
Next. Hospital accommodation guidelines for MCS are needed. Such as those described in the Italian scientific consensus published in 2021 in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. Next, please.
Workplace protection strategies are possible and needed. For example, those described in the green paper on workplace adaptation for people with MCS and EHS developed by the Spanish network Confesque, with the support of the Fundacion OMCE.
Next. A drastic reduction in the population exposure to electromagnetic field is needed to new safety standards that take into account the many non-thermal effects of electromagnetic fields. Restrictions on the use of fragrance products are needed in health care, work, and educational environments, as well as in public transport.
An extension of smoking bans is needed, including in crowded outdoor public spaces. Next, please. The absence of proper accommodation protocols and the difficulty of avoiding continuous and pervasive chemical and electromagnetic exposures not only constitute a concrete violation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. But also create the conditions that contribute to an increase in the number of patients and to the worsening of their condition.
Taking care of persons with environmental disabilities would improve environmental quality and the health of all European citizens.
Thank you.
Is there, yes, please.
The floor is yours.
Speaker 31
Thank you. Honorable members, dear petitioner. The commission shares the objectives of improving the lives of people with fibromyalgia.
Through better healthcare, research, workplace adaptations, and social inclusion. In this context, under the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, health policy and social protection systems are primarily the responsibility of member states. In the area of health, under article 168, it is explicitly stated that member states define their health policies, including the organisation, financing and delivery of health services and medical care. Under Article 153, it further clarifies that the EU has no competence to harmonize laws on social security or the recognition of disabilities including fibromyalgia.
This means that the official recognition of fibromyalgia, whether as a disability or a chronic condition, or within national health systems, falls under the national jurisdiction. And therefore, unfortunately, the commission cannot impose a one size fits all approach on member states in this area.
But what the EU can do, we can support member states in fostering cooperation, funding research, and sharing best practices that can also benefit those patients with fibromyalgia. We already have a number of important health initiatives where we support member states and stakeholders.
The Healthier Together EU and CD Noncommunicable Diseases Initiative is our main strategic framework to reduce the burden of major disease by promoting prevention, early diagnosis, and screening, and equitable access to care and treatment.
We also foster best practice exchange. We have platforms like the joint actions, where member states can collaborate and be funded under the EU4 Health programme to share information and knowledge on diagnostics, treatments, and patient support on fibromyalgia. And through Horizon Europe, our research program, we fund research on better diagnostics, treatments, and management of chronic pain conditions, which can also be beneficial for fibromyalgia patients.
In addition, an EU directive 89 39 391 requires employers to assess and mitigate risks to workers' health. Including workers who are suffering from particular conditions like fibromyalgia. Finally, the EU strategy for the rights of persons with disabilities, which was adopted in 2021, will run until 2030.
We aim to ensure full participation in society for all. In line with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The commission remains committed to working with you to improve the lives of people patients and people with fibromyalgia.
Within those boundaries that I mentioned earlier. Together, we can ensure that no one is left behind due to the invisibility of their condition. Thank you.
Thank you.
Bogdan Rzońca
And now we will give the floor to political groups. Mister Palladis, vice-chair.
Speaker 32
Thank you. I'd like to thank the petitioner who, for at least ten years now, has brought this to our committee. First of all, the nonrecognition of fibromyalgia as a debilitating and exhausting disease.
Even though health is a competence of member states, this specific case shows how important it is to exchange best practices both on the recognition and the management of this disease.
Taking into account that inside and outside the European Union, there are different treatments. So I propose that it remain open in order to continue monitoring developments and enhance the dialogue between member states.
Thank you.
Oh, yeah.
Thank you, chair.
Sandra Gómez López
Firstly, we'd like to thank the petitioner for her testimony, and we recognize this is the daily reality for many people who are suffering from chronic and complex illnesses, and they aren't always visible. As is the case with fibromyalgia.
Access to health care is a fundamental principle of the European Union. It must be guaranteed. And a citizen who feels that they are excluded from this or are not protected needs treatment. We need to be sensitive to this. At the same time, any political and health response needs to be based on solid and independent scientific data.
Guaranteeing public health standards and avoiding any conflicts of interest which might undermine trust. This is why we support the petition. We want it to remain open and can keep working it.
As member states, we also apply the WHO convention on rights for people with disabilities and access to public health, when it comes to health and employment and protection for vulnerable persons.
Thank you.
Two minutes for use.
Francesca Roman Orlando
I'm very grateful for the reply I received. At the same time, I would like to underline that in my experience, the main obstacle to the recognition of these environmental diseases is that we consider them environmental because they are caused and triggered by environmental factors.
Is the conflict of interest in the committees that are called into the side about the evaluation of scientific papers? So in my experience, we find that these diseases are opposed by industry because we know that the triggering of environmental factors pose a problem about safety standards. And we would like to ask you to please consider the importance of the new regulations for a conflict of interest.
In our opinion, it's not enough to declare a conflict of interest. We would like to have scientific commissions in the EU that are totally independent and made by experts that work for the public institutions or NGOs founded by citizens. We don't want to see any more experts funded by industry or funded by industry NGOs. This is the main problem that we observed in 20 years.
We know that we could have answers for the citizens if the evaluation of scientific evidence is made by independent scientists. So please consider this. This is an investment that we are going to do for the health of all European citizens, not only for the people who are already disabled.
Thank you.
Bogdan Rzońca
Thank you very much. This petition will remain open. In the meantime, we are waiting for the commission to reply. Thank you very much. We are moving on.
Item 10, number 146824, by Esther Roder Alcoba. From Spain on behalf of the association on the diagnosis and treatments of patients with celiac disease in the EU.
If I'm not wrong, the petitioner is connected to remote. I hope we are connected. And there is a second speaker in the meeting room, if I'm not wrong. Another representative of the organization is in the room.
Yes. Please.
Okay. Start.
Speaker 33
Senoras, Ladies and gentlemen, members of the petitions committee, I appeared before you a year ago to try to convey to you a reality that millions of celiac people in Europe are living in a situation which renders them vulnerable in health, economic, and social terms.
Today, I'm here once again not only to bear witness to this reality, but to take one further step. Since the last time I appeared, this petition has been declared admissible, and there has been a formal response granted by the European Commission. It has also been passed on to the public health committee of this parliament. This confirms that we're not dealing with a minor issue here, but we're talking about a real challenge at the European level. During this time, the European Commission has recognized some key elements here.
The lack of diagnoses on a significant scale, the significant economic impact, and difficulties in accessing treatment. Therefore, vulnerable, vulnerability for celiacs. This is a problem that we have all managed to identify.
But today, for millions of European citizens, nothing has changed. Europe has changed. Progress has been made on market harmonization, but there's been no guarantee of equal access to the treatment. The reality continues to be the same. There's no shared approach between the member states. Support measures are unequal, and access to treatment continues to work in practice as a genuine postcode lottery.
This is generating clear inequalities between European citizens who are dealing with the same illness. Ladies and gentlemen, as the member of the European Commission reminded us, we're not working in a legislative vacuum here.
The European Union does have instruments available. Legislation on food information, control systems, finances for research, and coordination mechanisms between member states. The problem isn't the lack of tools available. It's about the lack of implementation and effective coordination.
There are countries that have put structured models in place for support for people who are dealing with celiac disease, such as Italy, for example, which offer economic aid and access to gluten free. They also have health systems and personalized systems, as well as early detection programs or screening. This shows us that solutions do exist, and they are viable within the current European framework.
At the same time, at national level, we also see that progress is not materializing. In Spain, for example, there are a number of legal initiatives underway, but their development continues to be extremely limited, and there are parliamentary blockades. This all shows that without any clear and coordinated response at the European level, solutions won't arrive or they will, but too late in the day.
Ladies and gentlemen, we're not talking about food choices here. We're talking about medical and non pharmacological treatment that is mandatory and for a person's rest of their lives. This requires an excessive, this comes at a structural cost at about 1000 euros per year per person, which falls fully to individual patients. And because of the genetic component of this illness, often it affects multiple members of the same prob of the same family, and that multiplies the economic impact. Impact.
Furthermore, access to treatment does not merely depend on the health system. It also depends on public services and the food environment. This means that patient safety is at stake every single day, also in schools, hospitals, homes, or other public spaces. And therefore, it requires a broader, more cross cutting, and well coordinated public response to that end today.
We suggest making progress on three lines of action. Firstly, bolstering coordination between member states, promoting the real exchange of best practice and primer and first and foremost, effective implementation.
Secondly, making progress on harmonization of diagnostic criteria and early detection to reduce the high level of lack of diagnosis. Again, we're talking about 50% of the patients who are not diagnosed.
Third, put in place a European reference framework that puts in place equal minimal conditions that guarantee access to treatment across the whole of the European Union. Ladies and gentlemen, as we've seen, the problem is not the lack of knowledge. The problem is the lack of effective action.
Europe has recognized this reality. It has the instruments available, and it has examples that show that progress is possible. Now is the time to take this next step. And this, ladies and gentlemen, is very much in your hands.
Because we're not dealing with a new problem here. This is a problem that continues to have zero solutions. Celiacs are not asking for privilege. They're asking for access to treatment and equal conditions.
And this is what we've been talking about, guaranteeing the right to protection of health and equality for all European citizens. Thank you very much. And I now give the floor to my colleague, Veronica Rubio, who is the secretary general of the Celex organization from Europe, AOX. Who has also cosigned this petition.
Chair.
Veronika Rubio
Honorable members of the petitions committee, I'm grateful to have the opportunity to be here today to support my colleague, Esther Roje, and to give a voice to people who are suffering from celiac and cannot be present.
Today would not be talking about a medical position condition. We're talking about the daily experience of millions of European citizens where something as basic as being able to eat out in a restaurant, at their school, or in a hospital, traveling, or simply going shopping continues to be a constant challenge.
The AAOS, the organization which I have the honor of representing, brings together 40 different celiac associations from within and outside of the European Union, and we want to be extremely clear.
What we're talking about today is not a national problem. This is a pattern that is seen to greater or lesser extents in practically all member states. In Europe, a celiac doesn't enjoy the same opportunities depending on where they live. In some countries, they receive some type of support. In others, nothing at all.
In some countries, receive a diagnosis in the space of a few months. In others, it will take years. In some member states, there are safe and affordable products. Elsewhere, people face much higher costs even for basic products such as bread.
This inequality is not episodic. It's structural. The European Union has demonstrated leadership in food safety. And today, it has the opportunity to take an additional step in the right direction, strengthening coordination between member states, promoting an exchange of best practice, and making progress towards shared instruments that would reduce these existing gaps in research, diagnosis, treatment, and monitoring of celiac people, and also offering support to the people who are celiac.
Celiacs don't change when they cross a border, and the same should not apply to their health and safety either. Thank you.
Bogdan Rzońca
Thank you. Thank you very much. To our petitioners. Now I would like to give the floor to the commission, Digisano.
Speaker 31
Thank you. You. Honorable members, dear petitioners, the commission fully understands the challenges faced by individuals with celiac disease and gluten intolerance in their daily lives. Guided by a risk assessment from the European Food Safety Authority, the commission aims to ensure that clear, accurate, and safe information about food choices is provided to consumers to take the choice to consumers. To support these objectives, the Food Information to Consumers Regulation lays down provisions on food information to consumers.
And the member states have the obligation to put in place control systems which verify operators' compliance with the requirements set out in the Agri-Food chain legislation. The current legal framework also allows for member states if they wish to apply an exemption with deductibility of VAT paid at the preceding stage or a reduced VAT rate below 5% to the supply of food including gluten free foods.
In parallel, we have ongoing research through the Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe research programmes. And so far, over EUR 39,000,000 has been invested in projects on gluten intolerance, celiac disease, and to search for better tools to produce gluten-free foods.
Member states are responsible for the organization, financing and delivery of health services and medical care as stated in article 168 of the Treaty of the Functioning of the EU. And therefore, the EU's role is to complement national policies and to support the exchange of best practices.
In conclusion, the commission remains dedicated to supporting and protecting individuals with gluten intolerance and those with celiac disease within the remit of its competencies. Thank you.
Thank you so much, President.
Dolors Montserrat
Thank you very much. Thank you to the organization in Catalonia. Thank you for your bravery. Thank you to the Spanish Association for Celiacs as well. But as a Spanish citizen, as a European as well, firstly, I'd like to talk about the work that the European Union has done because it's been said very clearly DG Sante and the committee have been putting in place policies in Europe that are complementary in the member states. And the commission has spoken about labeling clear information to assist celiac patients.
Secondly, there's the possibility that member states have to also offer VAT exemptions on gluten-free products and also then offer support to manufacturing industries, especially in the agri-food sector. As well. To try to promote these forms of production. Of gluten-free products.
And therefore, there's this aspect of complement arity and also, coordination across Europe. But from a Spanish perspective, I felt compelled to talk. And, as another citizen who is suffering from celiac, I would just like to say thank you very much to the representatives for what they've said today because they're actually putting a face on the reality that Pedro Sanchez's government and the government in Catalonia seem to be incapable of responding to.
Celiacs depend on their postcode as to whether they receive treatment or not. Celiac disease is not a, a fashion. It's a form of torture for anyone suffering from it because gluten is contained in 70% of the foods that they have. And the slightest amount of cross contamination, even contact with the air, then turns this food into poison, a type of poison that will poison your own immune system and attack your own system.
Unlike a pay patient suffering from diabetes, let's say, which has insulin that is covered by the national health system in Spain, or someone who has myopia who receives state support for their glasses, for example, half a million Spanish families who have at least one member with celiac. Have to pay out of their own pocket day after day, as an extra form of taxation placed upon them simply for being ill.
It's a tax just for trying to live a normal life. A celiac pays per year €1,200 more than someone who is not suffering. And I have to say this, that the socialist party, instead of helping patients, is punishing them. They're treating bread, pasta, or basic products as luxury products.
And, you've told us that there is a solution. VAT exemption. So the solution is there. And the socialist government of Spain has it. But the commissioner said this loud and clear.
So it's shameful, quite frankly, that a government in Spain in a European member state is clearly discriminating against half a million families. And what I find the most outrageous is that Sanchez hasn't acted on this for electoral reasons, ideological reasons as well. But the same has happened.
With other people suffering from illnesses, with a law put in place by the PP, which had been approved, but the social government, socialist government, doesn't want to implement it. And the same is happening now with celiacs.
The PP in Spain put forward a draft bill to the Spanish parliament to help celiacs. It was approved. And then Sanchez's government did nothing about it. This is the problem that we have with the socialist propaganda and the proper governance of the PP in Spain.
Trying to offer real solutions to people. And the socialist governments, which are leading in Europe, and I have to say this, because the commission representative didn't. The framework directive is there for a diagnosis so that they don't come in seven years later.
Spain has put in place a national celiac register and is trying to, with money available for each patient. Again, this is something that Sanchez doesn't want to implement, even though it was approved by congress.
And also in the autonomous communities or regions where you have PPE governments in place. It might be Madrid or Andalusia. We've put in place direct forms of support for family suffering from celiac disease. And out of, for reasons of justice, solidarity, and commitment to those families, Spain and Europe have to put an end to the situation where celiacs are vulnerable, and they're paying the price.
And the commission has mentioned the solution. We have to approve specific forms of support for these people.
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