On 13 May 2026, the EcoMobility Transition project held its second roundtable with Hungarian regional actors, in online form.

The roundtable series aims to strengthen informed social dialogue and co-creative stakeholder engagement in regions navigating structural change in the automotive sector.

Building on the first roundtable in Debrecen in February, where participants identified heavy commuting flows, overloaded infrastructure, and poor transport coordination as key challenges, this session turned to housing, infrastructure investment, and EU industrial policy instruments available for just transition.

Participants, including trade union representatives from Vasas Szakszervezeti Szövetség and employer representatives from the Debrecen region, representatives of regional and municipal self-governments, development agencies, along with researchers, discussed monitoring of data on housing in Debrecen and the broader region.

Housing is an acute issue that prevents adequate socioeconomic development, affecting negatively both employers’ planning capacities and workers’ and local communities’ social reproduction.

Invited experts contributed to the event with presentations, sharing insights on housing data monitoring, infrastructure dilemmas, and EU funding opportunities for sustainable regional development.

Participants agreed that discussions about the housing issue have been neglected at city and regional levels. Reliable data is generally lacking, so targeted, more intensive monitoring is needed, along with more frequent information sharing and greater flexibility in consultation, involving specialised experts.

A constructive suggestion was made for a needs-based, coordinated approach that takes into account the concrete needs of employers and workers, with a special emphasis on the less visible population, such as temporary agency workers, and stakeholders, such as small and medium-sized enterprises.

The event was organised by CELSI researchers Tibor T. Meszmann and Pavol Bors.

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