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Reply to Recommendation | Doc. 14457 | 18 December 2017
The “Turin process”: reinforcing social rights in Europe
1. The Committee of
Ministers has carefully examined the Parliamentary Assembly Recommendation 2112 (2017) on “The Turin Process: reinforcing social rights in
Europe” which it has brought to the attention of governments of
member States and transmitted for comment to the European Committee
of Social Rights (ECSR), to the Governmental Committee of the European
Social Charter and the European Code of Social Security and to the
European Social Cohesion Platform (PECS).
2. The Committee of Ministers welcomes and shares the engagement
of the Parliamentary Assembly with regard to strengthening social
and economic rights in Europe. In this respect, it considers that
the European Social Charter is one of the most important and comprehensive
legal instruments dedicated to the protection of social rights at
the European level. It would underline in particular the emphasis
the Charter gives to protecting the more vulnerable groups of society
such as children, older persons, persons with disabilities and migrants,
which is more necessary than ever in the current political and economic
context.
3. In response to paragraph 2 of the recommendation, the Committee
of Ministers would inform the Assembly that it regularly invites
those member States who have not yet done so to consider signing
and ratifying the revised European Social Charter and its protocols.
4. In paragraph 3 of the recommendation, the Committee of Ministers
is called on “to adopt a unanimous decision to allow it [the Parliamentary
Assembly] to fulfil its appointed function in the European Social
Charter’s monitoring mechanism regarding the election of the members
of the European Committee of Social Rights, as foreseen in the Protocol
amending the European Social Charter”. The Committee of Ministers
would inform the Assembly that, whilst this issue has been considered
within the Committee, there is no consensus to take a decision to
that effect.
5. With reference to paragraph 4 of the recommendation, the Committee
of Ministers considers that the proclamation of the European Pillar
of Social Rights by the European Union (EU) marks a new step in
the protection of economic and social rights in Europe. It therefore
considers it appropriate to promote and consolidate synergies between
the European normative systems for the protection of social rights
(Council of Europe and EU). In this context, it has taken note of
the Opinion of the Secretary General of the Council of Europe on
the EU initiative to establish a European Pillar of Social Rights.
6. With specific regard to paragraph 4.1 of the recommendation,
the Committee of Ministers recalls that in 2014 the European Committee
of Social Rights (ECSR) prepared a working document entitled “The relationship
between EU law and the European Social Charter”. In the light of
the request by the Assembly, the Committee of Ministers invites
the ECSR to update this document, notably to study in depth the
possible synergies between the European Social Charter and the European
Pillar of Social Rights.
7. Finally, the Committee of Ministers can inform the Assembly
that the Secretary General attended the Social Summit for Fair Jobs
and Growth co-organised by the European Commission and the Swedish Government
in Gothenburg on 17 November 2017.