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CEPI meets… Mr Jan Olbrycht

In the framework of our new heading « CEPI meets… », this month we interviewed Mr. Jan Olbrycht MEP (Group of the European People's Party), Chairman of the URBAN Intergroup. Our questions concerned the importance of urban policy, and specifically housing, for the European Parliament. We also asked specific questions on the role of the Intergroup, on why the European Parliament needs a special group dealing with urban policy, as well as on the main issues upon which it is working at the moment, and the ones which will be the most important for the future.

Mr Olbrycht notes that “urban issues are increasingly important in EU policies and therefore also in the work of the European Parliament”, and that this can be explained by the fact that “towns and cities are more and more seen as the engines driving regional and national economies, but also as a place of concentration of many social and environmental problems”. He also insists on the fact that housing is one of the issues which come back on the EP agenda on a regular basis, with different focuses, for example in the framework of discussions on energy saving measures...

Read the full interview...