Major international conference in Brussels
Policy-makers, social partners and representatives of civil society and academia are among the participants at a two-day international conference on the future of social rights protection in Europe which is taking place in Brussels on 12 and 13 February 2015.
The conference is being co-organised by the Council of Europe and the Belgian authorities as part of Belgium’s on-going chairmanship of the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers.
The event represents Belgium’s contribution to the “Turin Process”, which was launched at a high-level conference last October.
The process aims to consolidate and enhance the role of the European Social Charter across the continent in order to help fill the gap between civil and political rights, on the one hand, and social and economic rights on the other.
Subjects for discussion at the conference include the future of social rights in Europe, the impact of the financial and economic crisis on social rights and relations between the 47-nation Council of Europe and the 28-member European Union in this area.
Participants are also discussing the importance of European countries signing and ratifying the Revised European Social Charter of 1996 and signing up to the charter’s collective complaints mechanism, under which formal complaints can be brought by groups such as trade unions and NGOs.
Developments relating to other international tools for protecting social rights – including EU law, the instruments of the International Labour Organisation and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) – are also being considered.
The Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Thorbjørn Jagland, opened the conference alongside Marianne Thyssen, EU Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs, Skills and Mobility, and Belgian Minister of Social Affairs and Public Health Maggie De Block.
The Secretary General said: "In Europe, through the European Social Charter, you are guaranteed a fair chance at a decent life. You are guaranteed rights in housing, in health, in education and at work.
"The Charter isn’t limiting, it’s liberating. It isn’t a set of heavy-handed European obligations but the basic social rights – universal rights – on which we should all be able to agree."
Opening address by the Secretary General
Press release of the Belgian Chair of the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers
Извор: Совет на Европа – 11.02.2015
