Wikipedia:WikiProject Squatting/Draft/Squatting in Europe

Squatting in Europe

Belarus

 * Squatting in Belarus

Bosnia and Herzegovina
In Bosnia and Herzegovina, as in other former Yugoslavian countries, squatters build informal settlements which are comparable in size and quality to formal housing. These were not tolerated under socialism and then increased in numbers. By 1999, in the capital Sarajevo only 15,000 out of an estimated 45,000 illegally built houses had been submitted for legalization. After the Bosnian War (1992-1995), almost four-fifths of the internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Bosnia and Herzegovina were squatting. They lived in property belonging to either IDPs of another ethnicity or or to refugees who had fled the area. Owners discovered it could take years to recover their property. An article in the Cornell International Law Journal gave the example of a Muslim IDP forced to wait nine years to regain his house in west Mostar in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina which had been occupied by a well-connected Croat. Since the local authorities were attempting to keep Muslims out of west Mostar, the courts refused to respect the IDP's claim until he appealed to the Human Rights Chamber for Bosnia and Herzegovina. Bosniak nationalist political parties such as the Party of Democratic Action and the Social Democratic Party encouraged Bosniaks to retrieve property in Croat and Serb zones. In the Republika Srpska, Serb squatters were encouraged by the authorities to remain in their occupations so as to boost the overall number of Serbs and prevent the return of Bosnian Muslims.

In 2018, the World Bank estimated that 8 per cent of the population of Bosnia and Herzegovina was living in slums. At the end of 2020, there were almost 10,000 migrants from places such as Afghanistan stranded in Bosnia as they attempted to enter the European Union at the border with Croatia. Of these, 3,000 were squatting in Una-Sana Canton and the International Rescue Committee cautioned that the situation could develop into a humanitarian crisis. Migrants were occupying buildings such as a former factory in Bihać or living in the forest near the border.

Bulgaria

 * Squatting in Bulgaria

Croatia
Squatting in Croatia has existed as a phenomenon since the decline of the Roman Empire. In the 1960s much private housing was illegally constructed and since the 1990s squatting is used as a tactic by feminists, punks and anarchists. Well-known (and legalized) squats include the Rojc barracks in Pula and AKC Medika in Zagreb.

France

 * Squatting in France
 * https://www.infomigrants.net/en/post/21478/living-from-day-to-day-in-bordeaux-s-migrant-squats

Germany

 * Squatting

Georgia

 * Squatting in Georgia

Greece

 * Athens refugee squats


 * https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2016/1/7/a-refugee-new-year-in-a-greek-anarchist-shelter


 * https://www.europeaninterest.eu/article/end-anarchists-exarcheia/

Iceland
Squatting#Iceland

XM24
XM24 in Bologna was a squatted, self-managed social centre at via Fioravanti 24, the site of a derelict fruit and vegetable market of 3,000m². It was founded in 2002, with its inspirations coming from the 1990s alter-globalization movement and a previuous squat on via Ranzani. It was run by a weekly meeting and hosted left-wing projects such as an organic food market by local farmers, a bicycle repair workshop, a free gym, a garden, two concert venues and a restaurant.

Three years later, the site of the centre remained unused land.

Kosovo
After the Kosovo War (1998-1999), there was widespread squatting in Kosovo. Members of the Kosovo Liberation Army took over businesses. The United Nations set up a tribunal based in Pristina to investigate cases called the United Nations Housing and Property Directorate which was succeeded by the Kosovo Property Agency. By 2008, the tribunal had heard 29,000 claims of which 17,500 had resulted in the return of property to its owner. Most were made by Serbs whose homes were being squatted by Albanians. Informal settlements also sprang up, built both by former soldiers and refugees displaced by war.


 * https://balkaninsight.com/2015/12/21/well-connected-squatters-thwart-kosovo-privatisations-12-19-2015/

Latvia

 * Squatting in Latvia

Liechenstein

 * Squatting in Liechenstein

Luxembourg

 * Squatting in Luxembourg
 * Kulturfabrik Esch-sur-Alzette

Lithuania

 * Užupis

Malta
In the island country of Malta, informal housing construction on squatted land along the coast is pervasive in areas such as Armier Bay, Ġnejna Bay and St Thomas' Bay. Fort Binġemma near Mdina has been occupied by a family since 1981 and squatted since the lease was terminated in 2009. Squatters have also occupied the Palazz l-Ahmar and were evicted in 2005 after a fire.

A squatter family had their application to the Planning Authority approved to extend their property in Birkirkara, surprising neighbours who believed that the squatters could not get planning permission. In Valletta, the government expropriated three buildings in 1993 aiming to make them into a new Attorney General's Office but never did so, in part because they were squatted. The government began eviction proceedings in 2001 and the squatters left in 2007. In 2018, the European Court of Human Rights awarded the previous two owners €100,000 each plus court costs because the government had not paid them any compensation.

North Macedonia

 * Squatting in North Macedonia

Northern Ireland

 * Squatting in Northern Ireland

Poland
Squatting in Poland

Portugal
Squatting in Portugal

Russia
Squatting in Russia

Slovenia
In Slovenia, there was squatting in Ljubljana from the 1960s onwards. By the early 1970s, half of all private construction was illegal and this resulted in the 1972 Black Housing Law which attempted to regulate squatter housing. 15,000 illegally constructed buildings were identified in 1985. In Lubljana, Rog was an occupied factory complex between 2006 until 2021 and former military barracks Metelkova is a self-managed social centre.

Switzerland
Squatting in Switzerland

From squatting: Geneva in Switzerland had 160 buildings illegally occupied and more than 2,000 squatters, in the middle of the 1990s. The RHINO (Retour des Habitants dans les Immeubles Non-Occupés, in English: Return of Inhabitants to Non-Occupied Buildings) was a 19-year-long squat in Geneva. It occupied two buildings on the Boulevard des Philosophes, a few blocks away from the main campus of the University of Geneva. The RHINO organisation often faced legal troubles, and Geneva police evicted the inhabitants on July 23, 2007. There were large riots in Zürich when the Binz occupation was evicted in 2013. The squatters moved to another building.

FR

 * LAUSANNE
 * https://www.24heures.ch/squatters-en-sursis-dans-un-quartier-cossu-681801971545
 * https://www.lausannecites.ch/lactualite/eclairage/les-squats-actuels-dans-la-region
 * Geneva
 * Zone to Defend - Colline
 * https://apnews.com/article/business-europe-switzerland-civil-disobedience-3fd17b65197f01a66290abb77e168d40

DE

 * ZURICH - Rote Fabrik, Opernhauskrawalle, Cabaret Voltaire (Zurich)
 * From 1968 onwards, Zurich experienced a youth revolt led by anarchists, squatters, students and working-class youths called for autonomous projects and a new politics.
 * Squatters have helped to set up co-operative living situations by pioneering them in practice. One example is the Karthago block where over 50 people live. It was squatted in 1985 and legalised in 1997.
 * Revolt or Transgression? Squatted Houses and Meeting Places of the Heroin Scene in Zurich and Berlin as Spaces of Transgressive Youth - JH Friedrichs
 * https://journal.media-culture.org.au/mcjournal/article/view/2179
 * Squatting and urban renewal: The interaction of squatter movements and strategies of urban restructuring in Berlin - A Holm, A Kuhn
 * BERN - Kulturzentrum Reitschule
 * Kulturzentrum Bremgarten

IT
In the Italian-speaking zone, there is a self-managed centre in Lugano called Il Molino which has existed since 1996.