Doc. 8710
7 April 2000

Assertion of the right to work in Europe

Written Declaration No. 302

This written declaration commits only the members who have signed it

      We, the undersigned members of the Assembly, in the year of the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, confirm that:

- the right to work is the cornerstone of the legal system of the Council of Europe, as embodied in the Preamble of the above-mentioned Convention as well as in Article 1 of the European Social Charter of 1961, which was revised in 1996, where member countries are required to consider the achievement and maintenance of a high and stable level of employment as one of their primary responsibilities, with a view to ensuring the actual exercise of the right to work;

- the protection of such a fundamental right should be considered as an indispensable compelement of a market economy based on free competition;

- the values of solidarity in the working world have now become a common heritage for all the policy-makers of our continent. As a matter of fact, in the era of globalisation they help distinguish between "the social market economy" of Europe and the social models of the two other economic poles, that is the United States and Japan;

- these values are an integral part of the legal systems of the 41 member countries of the council of Europe and must be included among the unifying factors of the Greater Europe.

Signed (see overleaf)

Signed : 1

Gross, Switzerland, SOC

Bársony, Hungary, SOC

Besostri, Italy, SOC

Bianchi, Italy, EPP/CD

Brancati, Italy, SOC

Busic, Croatia, EPP/CD

Dokle, Albania, SOC

Evangelisti, Italy, SOC

Hancock, United Kingdom, LDR

Jansson, Finland, LDR

Laakso, Finland, UEL

Lauricella, Italy, SOC

Martelli, Italy, EPP/CD

Pinggera, Italy, EPP/CD

Polenta, Italy, EPP/CD

Poptodorova, Bulgaria, SOC

Pozza Tasca, Italy, LDR

Provera, Italy, LDR

Risari, Italy, EPP/CD

Rodeghiero, Italy, LDR

Škrabalo, Croatia, LDR

__________________

Total = 21

1        SOC: Socialist Group

      EPP/CD: Group of the European People’s Party

      EDG:European Democratic Group

      LDR : Liberal, Democratic and Reformers’ Group

      UEL : Group of the Unified European Left

      NR : Not registered in a group