Social Rights

Both reports call for a Fourth Summit of Council of Europe Heads of State and Government, which should be an opportunity for reaffirming the need to strengthen the intergovernmental co-operation of the Council of Europe and its convention-based system, including the European Social Charter.

In 2014, the Secretary General of the Council of Europe launched the Turin Process for the European Social Charter which aims at strengthening the normative system of the Charter within the Council of Europe and in its relationship with EU law. In order to reach its objective, namely of improving the implementation of social rights at national level, “the European Social Charter should become the central column of the newly adopted European Pillar of Social Rights with the collective complaints procedure provided for in the Additional Protocol to the Charter crowning the whole”, emphasize Tiny Kox in its report “Defending the acquis of the Council of Europe: preserving 65 years of successful intergovernmental co-operation”.

In its report “Call for a Council of Europe Summit to reaffirm European unity and to defend and promote democratic security in Europe”, Michele Nicoletti (Italy) underlines that “promoting the implementation of and enhancing the mechanism of the European Social Charter, which guarantees day-to-day human needs such as work, health, housing, education, social security and protection or welfare services, means ensuring dignity, bringing people together, contributing to their individual and collective well-being, as well as leading to social cohesion, peace and economic development”.