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Even though Social Platform mainly works with the institutions of the European Union to promote social progress in Europe, we should not forget the existence of another important legal instrument that was created in 1961 within the framework of the Council of Europe: the European Social Charter.

According to Giuseppe Palmisano, President of the European Committee of Social Rights invited as a high-level speaker at a conference on social rights in Europe, organised by the Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies, the European Social Charter is in fact the most comprehensive instrument ensuring the protection of social rights on the European continent. Indeed, 43 out of the 47 Member States of the Council of Europe have signed up to the Charter, which covers a wide range of social rights such as social protection, employment, education, housing and health.

As President of the European Committee of Social Rights – the body in charge of supervising respect of the Charter by signatory countries – Mr Palmisano provided interesting insights into the current state of social rights in Europe. As he explained, in recent years they have been put under strong pressure in a context of economic crisis and counter-productive measures that have often hit people in the most vulnerable situations the hardest. We can easily agree with his analysis of the situation; and his vision of the way forward was very interesting.

Mr Palmisano insisted on the need for countries that have not yet adopted the revised version of the Charter and the collective complaint mechanism to rapidly do so – a claim Social Platform also made in our response to the public consultation on the European Pillar of Social Rights. As he explained, there is a clear added value of the collective complaint mechanism in comparison with the classical monitoring system based on national reports. It allows social partners and non-governmental organisations to directly apply to the European Committee of Social Rights for rulings on potential breaches of the Charter, making its impact much more tangible. Unfortunately, only fifteen State Parties of the Council of Europe, including fourteen EU Member States, have accepted to be subject to the collective complaint procedure so far.

Moreover, Mr Palmisano called for better coherence between the European Social Charter and EU law. All EU Members States have ratified the Charter or its revised version. EU legislation and policies, however, sometimes have a negative impact on Member States’ ability to respect their commitments to the Charter. This can be the case, for example, when austerity measures imposed by the EU lead to an unravelling of social safety nets. On this particular issue, Mr Palmisano’s reply to one question from the audience on the costs of social rights on public budgets very well echoed Social Platform’s convictions. He explained that political and civil rights also have costs. However, very few people would put into question the organisation of democratic elections or the respect of decent conditions of detention for prisoners to save public money. The same logic should apply to social rights – they are protected by European and international law. Respect for them must be unconditional and cannot depend on external political or economic factors.