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Back The European Committee of Social Rights publishes its Activity Report for 2025

Today, the European Committee of Social Rights (ECSR) published its Activity Report for 2025, highlighting continued challenges in the implementation of the European Social Charter amid the cost-of-living crisis, changing labour markets and pressure on welfare systems.

The year 2025 was a pivotal period for social rights in Europe, with the European Committee of Social Rights (ECSR) stepping up its efforts to strengthen the framework of the European Social Charter.

In 2025, the Committee adopted 213 conclusions on States Parties' compliance with the Charter, 186 of non-conformity and 27 of conformity. Key concerns included just remuneration, working time, collective bargaining, gender equality and equal pay, and protection for workers in non-standard forms of employment

The ECSR also registered 13 new collective complaints and adopted 10 decisions on the merits, addressing issues such as labour rights, housing, healthcare and social protection.

The report highlights the Committee's continued cooperation with other Council of Europe bodies and international partners to strengthen the protection of social rights and improve the implementation of the European Social Charter across member States.

In the introduction to the report, the ECSR President Aoife Nolan reaffirms the Committee's commitment to increasing the visibility, accessibility and impact of the Charter through enhanced communication, education and capacity-building.

ECSR Activity Report for 2025

Strasbourg 6/07/2026

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What is the Committee of Social Rights

The European Committee of Social Rights is the monitoring body of the European Social Charter. It is composed of 15 independent, impartial members which are elected by the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers for a period of six years, renewable once.

What is the role of the Committee of Social Rights

The European Committee of Social Rights rules on the conformity of the situation in States with the Charter under two complementary mechanisms: through collective complaints lodged by the social partners and governmental organisations (collective complaints procedure), and through national reports drawn up by the States Parties (reporting procedure).

States Parties have an obligation to cooperate with the Committee and its jurisprudence (both “decisions” in complaints and “conclusions” on the basis of national reports). This obligation arises from the application of the principle of good faith to the observance of all treaty obligations. For States Parties to ignore or not take into account the Committee’s decisions and conclusions would be to fail to show good faith in implementing their Charter-based obligations.