VIENNA : The increased cost of living is weighing on Europeans' rights, an EU agency said in a report published Thursday, citing rising housing costs that are making people homeless.

House prices in the EU as a whole rose by 53 percent between 2015 and 2024, while rents increased by nearly 17 percent over the same period, the Vienna-based European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) said in its annual report, citing data from EU agency Eurostat.

"Soaring costs affect many individuals and families, as more and more people cannot afford their homes and risk becoming homeless," said FRA director Sirpa Rautio in the report.

"Young people and vulnerable groups face hardships that undermine their access to the basic right to adequate housing and many remain unprotected against eviction."

There are indications that homelessness is on the rise, the report said, with the European Federation of National Organisations Working with the Homeless (Feantsa) estimating nearly 1.3 million people were homeless in the EU in 2025.

The EU is also "increasingly tested in upholding rules-based governance and fundamental rights" given "intense geopolitical instability and security threats", Rautio noted.

"The unpredictable international environment and ongoing wars are having an impact here at home -- not least on people's sense of safety and wellbeing," she said.

Online hate is spreading, FRA said, finding more than one in three people in the EU had come across content online that they found to be harmful.

Enforcing EU laws to regulate the internet "has faced challenges including holding tech platforms to account", according to Rautio.

The report also identified "serious employment-related challenges affecting third-country workers in the EU", including "overqualification, discrimination and labour exploitation".

Yet the EU is facing major labour shortages, FRA noted. The report covers all 27 EU member states, as well as Albania, North Macedonia and Serbia.