Duitsland ondertekent het herziene Europese Sociale Handvest (en)

Press Release - 472(2007)

Germany signs the Revised European Social Charter

Strasbourg, 02.07.2007 - Germany has become the 43rd State to sign the Revised European Social Charter.

It was signed on Friday 29 June by the German Permanent Representative to the Council of Europe, Eberhard Kölsch, in the presence of the Council of Europe's Deputy Secretary General, Maud de Boer-Buquicchio.

"The Revised Charter is very important as the counterpart to the European Convention on Human Rights, and helps to keep the Council of Europe's social model in the era of globalisation", declared Ambassador Eberhard Kölsch after the signing.

"The Social Charter provides a valuable framework and is important for both the living and working conditions of workers faced with the effects of globalisation. Nowadays, German workers compete directly with Chinese and Indian workers and there is always a high risk of social dumping", he added.

"As said at the last European Council of the German Presidency of the European Union which took place last week in Berlin, the State must regulate to keep the European social model -one cannot leave absolute power to the markets".

39 of the Council of Europe's 47 member States are bound by the European Social Charter ; 23 of those countires have ratified the Revised Social Charter.

During the June session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, parliamentarians underlined the importance of the Charter and supported its full implementation by all member States.

Council of Europe Press Division

Tel: +33 (0)3 88 41 25 60

Fax:+33 (0)3 88 41 39 11

pressunit@coe.int

www.coe.int/press