New European Bauhaus enters its next phase

New European Bauhaus was launched in 2020 by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen as a cultural and social complement to the European Green Deal. Its original ambition was deliberately open-ended: to combine sustainability, inclusion, and quality of life through design, architecture, culture, and citizen participation.

During the last five years, the initiative has produced more than 700 projects, involved nearly 2,000 organisations, and fostered a growing ecosystem of local authorities, researchers, designers, artists, businesses, and civil society actors. Having reached a level of maturity, the initiative is now seen as ready for scaling up, standardisation, and the establishment of more durable governance structures.

From vision to implementation 

Adopted in conjunction with the new European Affordable Housing Plan, the Communication "New European Bauhaus: From Vision to Implementation", together with its accompanying proposal for a Council Recommendation, sets out key actions to scale up the initiative and strengthen its role as a driver of the clean transition, innovation, and social cohesion in Europe and beyond.

In EU governance terms, a Communication is a soft but influential policy instrument. It does not create binding law, but it articulates political priorities, coordinates action across policy domains, and signals future legislative, funding, and governance directions. Communications often function as agenda-setters: they align Member States, EU institutions, funding programmes, and stakeholders around a shared framework, while leaving room for national and local adaptation.

In this case, the NEB Communication sets strategic direction at EU level. It defines priorities, aligns the NEB with flagship agendas such as affordable housing and industrial competitiveness, and clarifies how design-led, participatory, and sustainability-oriented approaches are expected to contribute to housing provision, neighbourhood regeneration, democratic resilience, and the clean transition.

By explicitly calling for continuity of NEB funding beyond 2027 in the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), the Communication positions the NEB as a long-term EU priority rather than a time-limited initiative.

Link to Communication

The Communication is accompanied by a proposal for a Council Recommendation on the New European Bauhaus, which translates the strategic vision into a governance-oriented instrument addressed directly to Member States. The Recommendation is designed to anchor the NEB within national, regional, and local policy frameworks, in full respect of the principle of subsidiarity.

The proposal for Recommendation invites Member States to integrate NEB values – sustainability, inclusion, and quality of life – into housing policies, spatial planning, building renovation strategies, and the implementation of cohesion policy.

Link to Council Recommendation  

Linking the NEB to the European Affordable Housing Plan

One of the most significant developments in the Communication is the tight coupling of the NEB with the European Affordable Housing Plan. Housing affordability is framed as a central social, economic, and democratic challenge intersecting with climate policy, social cohesion, energy poverty, and competitiveness.

Within this framework, the NEB is positioned as a qualitative and participatory engine for the transformation of European neighbourhoods. Rather than treating housing solely as a quantitative supply issue, the NEB approach emphasises renovation, reuse, densification, circular construction, and citizen co-creation. While housing and neighbourhoods remain at the core of the initiative, the Communication also signals an expansion into sectors such as textiles and fashion, applying the same values-based, circular, and participatory logic.

Communication articulates three overarching objectives:

1. Enhancing circularity, sustainability, and innovation in the built environment, by supporting the circular economy and bioeconomy, promoting research and scaling up innovative solutions, and strengthening community resilience to climate-related risks and natural disasters
2. Empowering citizens through participatory processes, in order to build democratic, inclusive, and resilient neighbourhoods
3. Harnessing the transformative power of education, arts, and culture to boost creativity, innovation, and local transformation.

If successfully implemented, the period from 2026 onward may see the NEB evolve into a lasting European framework for making social and ecological transitions tangible in everyday environments – especially where they matter most: in homes, neighbourhoods, and shared public spaces.

Link to European Affordable Housing Plan

The NEB Facility funding implementation in 2026–2027

A further pillar underpinning the Communication is the establishment of the New European Bauhaus Facility, the first dedicated multiannual financial instrument for the initiative. Anchored in Horizon Europe for the period 2025–2027, the facility provides a stable funding backbone linking experimentation, scaling, and implementation across policy domains.

The NEB Facility is structured around two complementary components: a research and innovation strand (R&I) that supports the development and demonstration of new solutions, and a roll-out strand that scales up proven NEB approaches by leveraging cohesion policy funds, national resources, and private investment.

The Work Programme for the NEB Facility (R&I) 2026–2026 has been published. 

Link to Work Programme 2026–2027

Info day on NEB Facility call 2026 will be held on 24 February from 13:00 to 17:00 (CET). You can sign up to receive an event reminder with connection information here.

Additional information

Aleksi Lohtaja, NEB Policy NCP 
aleksi.lohtaja@archinfo.fi

Markku Pekonen, HE NEB Policy NCP
markku.pekonen@businessfinland.fi