madam president the treaty of lisbon recognises the importance of the availability and accessibility of social services and the roles played by local and regional authorities in providing these
the issues of social housing are of extreme importance to people with low incomes and it is a reality that the crisis has left a large number of people unemployed who are in need of social housing
currently member states apply different standards when deciding their criteria for social housing
it is understandable that the economic and social situations differ significantly in the member states
in order to implement the right of access to universal services i believe it would be reasonable to define general principles and to set the recommended upper income limit at eu level
however we need to allow broad discretion for the member states to make this lower taking into account economic and social differences
