HOUSING POLICY AND SECURITY IN THE EU: A CASE STUDY OF THE CZECH REPUBLIC

Our paper aims at analysing and assessing sustainable housing policy and social security in selected countries of the European Union with a special focus on housing policy which largerly depends on the family support and family policy of the EU Member States. Family policy and family support allow young families to acquire their own housing and therefore represent a key element in the bundle of the social-oriented state policies. The paper describes the historical development of housing policy and security as well as provides comprehensive analyses of the existing housing policy instruments. Moreover, it focuses on the standard of living and various legal aspects of the social policy in the post-Communist countries using the case study of the Czech Republic. The analysis is done through the comparison of the state-of-the-art in the Czech Republic to the wealthier and more developed EU Member States represented by Germany and United Kingdom. We find that in all countries in question housing is of good quality but each country stands out with its own specifics that are dependent on the economic and social situation. Moreover, we find that the EU membership plays an important role in the formation and development of social policy and housing policy.