Minister Javier Hurtado goes to the European Commission and the European Parliament to present the Basque Country's position on the proposed regulation on short-term rentals

• The European Parliament will debate the European Commission’s proposal regarding the “Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the collection and exchange of data on short-term rentals”

The Minister for Tourism, Trade and Consumer Affairs, Javier Hurtado, will travel to Brussels on 22 and 23 May to hold several meetings at the European Commission and the European Parliament with those responsible for the proposal for a “Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the collection and exchange of data on short-term rentals”. The regulation will be debated in the parliamentary committee on the Internal Market and Consumers (IMCO) and is due to be voted on in the European Parliament in September.

The Minister will explain to those responsible the vision and position of the Basque Country, which has already specified its contributions in the opinion issued through the Committee of the Regions in March, with regard to this Regulation. To this end, he will meet in the European Parliament with MEP Kim Van Sparrentak, who is responsible for defending the European Parliament’s report on the proposed European Regulation.

He will also hold a meeting at the European Commission with the Deputy Director General of the Directorate General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, Hubert Gambs, who is responsible for the text of the Short Term Rental Regulation.

Following these meetings, the Minister will meet with several MEPs who are members of the Parliamentary Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Affairs, IMCO, where the Regulation will be discussed.

Finally, the Minister will also meet with Cristina Nuñez, Secretary General of the Network of European Regions for Sustainable and Competitive Tourism (NECSTOUR), of which the Basque Tourism Agency, Basquetour, is a member.

This European Regulation is considered key by the Basque Government to provide greater transparency to online platforms that advertise properties for tourist use and to provide the competent authorities with the necessary tools to control the activity. For this reason, the Basque Government advocates making it compulsory for platforms to include the registration number of the dwellings. It also calls for clarification of the penalty system so that the competent administrations, such as the Basque Autonomous Community, can require platforms to comply with the Regulation. Finally, it calls for speeding up the implementation of this regulation.