22 May 2024, 10 am to 4 pm
EU House, Dunajska cesta 20, Ljubljana

Every issue becomes a problem if you don’t deal with it for 30 years. This principle applies in both personal and professional life. Issues and problems that are ignored or delayed often get worse with time.

Community building and everything related to putting sustainable spatial development principles into practice, spatial planning and construction, quality architecture, urban planning and landscape planning is crucial for the quality of life and the development of society and its future. The Green Agenda and digitalisation, which is the EU’s 2030 orientation, provides a further basis for change and for addressing more concretely the current spatial challenges for the sustainable development of cities, towns and wider urban areas. The Housing Cooperatives conference, organised by EPEKA and the Community of Municipalities of Slovenia, will focus on promoting and raising awareness among key actors in the fields of regulation, spatial planning and construction about the importance of housing cooperatives – a model that is already commonplace abroad and a new model in Slovenia that should be explored in practice. We will be joined by representatives of European, national and local politicians, NGOs and young people, and will also present existing good practices from abroad.

The conference will take place at the EU House on 22 May 2024, between 9.30 and 16.00. Participation is free of charge.

The problems we are now facing in the housing sector through inaction are as follows:

  • Increased costs (solving the housing problem is now more expensive than it would have been in the past).
  • Psychological impact (people realise that this is now the problem that most troubles and upsets them in their daily lives).
  • Missed opportunities (housing is not solved, we are not competitive with our competitors and it is difficult to recruit the urban and rural staff we desperately need).

We have entered the 34th year of Slovenia’s independence and, unfortunately, we do not have a single housing cooperative in the country yet, while housing cooperatives in developed parts of Europe are already established practices.

In the framework of the conference Housing cooperatives and activities to promote and raise awareness in the field of regulation, spatial planning and construction, we want to draw attention to this and find a way to change this.

Community building and everything related to putting the principles of sustainable spatial development into practice, spatial planning and construction, quality architecture, urban planning and landscape planning is crucial for the quality of life and the development of society and its future. The Green Agenda and digitalisation, which is the EU’s 2030 orientation, provides a further basis for change and for addressing more concretely the current spatial challenges for the sustainable development of cities, towns and wider urban areas.

Conference programme 22 May 2024, at EU House:

The event will be held in Slovenian, except for the presentation of the international guests. Translation into Slovenian will be provided for this part of the event.

Applications and more information:

EPEKA – Housing Cooperative for All, implemented with the support of Ministry of the Economy, Tourism and Sport, under the Call for proposals to promote the development of cooperative and social economy projects 2023-2024.