We are pleased to share this recording of a conversation on the future of the European Social Charter (ESC), the main instrument protecting social rights within the Council of Europe, as well as on its relationship to the European Union.
The conversation, organised by ANESC (UK and Ireland) featured two interventions. A first intervention by Prof Aoife Nolan discussed the achievements of the European Social Charter and of its monitoring body (the European Committee of Social Rights (ECSR)), as well as the challenges ahead, with a particular emphasis on the Collective Complaints Mechanism which allows NGOs and unions to address situations of non-conformity to the ECSR, and on the role of civil society in the reporting mechanism of the Charter.
A second intervention by Prof Olivier De Schutter explored the relationship of the ESC to the EU. While the EU has adopted the Charter of Fundamental Rights (including a set of social rights and principles) that is binding on the EU institutions and on the EU Member States in the implementation of EU law, and while the EU institutions have endorsed the European Pillar of Social Rights, the relationship of these instruments to the Council of Europe’s Social Charter and, more generally, the role of the ESC in law - and policy-making in the EU remain debated.
This event The European Social Charter at Sixty: Achievements, Challenges and Prospects for the Protection of Social Rights in Europe took place at 10-12 am. Irish Time (CET) - 10th May 2022, chaired by Ms Eleanor Sharpston, a former Advocate General to the Court of Justice of the European Union.