Nearly a decade after EU leaders declared all Europeans have the right to decent housing, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday that it’s time for the bloc to deliver.

“A home is not just four walls and a roof: it is safety, warmth, a place for family and friends,” von der Leyen told European Parliament lawmakers during her annual State of the European Union address in Strasbourg. “But for too many Europeans today, home has become a source of anxiety.”

Citing data that shows housing prices across the bloc have increased by more than 20 percent since 2015, the Commission president vowed to do more to tackle an issue that has generated mass protests in many of Europe’s cities and become a major factor in national elections.

“This is more than a housing crisis,” she said. “It is a social crisis.”

Von der Leyen has made the housing affordability crisis a key priority of her second administration, tapping Denmark’s Dan Jørgensen to be the bloc’s first commissioner for housing. The latest Eurobarometer survey shows Europeans want the EU to make solving the cost-of-living crisis a top priority.

During her speech, von der Leyen confirmed the Commission will unveil its European Affordable Housing Plan early next year, which will include measures to accelerate the construction of new homes, renovate existing buildings and end homelessness by 2030. Responding to long-standing demands from housing experts and national governments, she said the Commission will revise state aid rules so that EU members can use public cash to build affordable housing.

Following up on last year’s EU legislation requiring the registration of all short-term rentals by 2026, she also promised to further rein in the tourist flats that are a major factor in the EU’s housing shortage. EU mayors are calling for measures that would target properties in stressed markets like those found in most of the bloc’s major cities and tourism hot spots.

“Nurses, teachers, and firemen cannot afford to live where they serve,” she said. “Students drop out because they cannot pay the rent, and young people delay starting families.”

“Housing is about dignity,” von der Leyen added. “It is about fairness. And it is about Europe’s future.”