Decisions on the Merits

The act which brings an end to the adversarial stage of the collective complaints procedure is the adoption by the European Committee of Social Rights (ECSR) of a ‘decision on the merits’, in which the ECSR finds and declares that there has been – or has not been – a violation by the state concerned of the social rights at stake.

Each decision is adopted by the ECSR following one or more deliberations on a draft decision prepared and proposed by the rapporteur, namely, an ECSR member specifically appointed by the president of the Committee once the complaint has been registered.

As appears from the text of the ECSR's decisions, each decision is the outcome of an in-depth examination and legal assessment of the situation that is the object of the complaint, which are conducted on the basis of the wide range of information being available to the ECSR and all the elements, in fact and in law, that are relevant to the implementation of the Charter provisions and social rights in question.

When it finds a violation of the Charter, the ECSR does not just summarise in its pronouncement what the violation is. It also explains extensively in the grounds given for its ruling (which appear in the part of the decision entitled ‘Assessment of the Committee’) why, in the specific situation to which the complaint relates, it considers that the state has not satisfactorily applied the Charter and implemented the rights protected by its provisions, in the light of the most appropriate interpretation of what these provisions require in such a situation.

Where it deems it necessary, the ECSR may also label the situation an ‘aggravated violation’ of the Charter.

As part of its evaluation work, the ECSR often gives proof of its capacity to reorder and reclassify the complainant's ground of alleged violation and, above all, to systematically interpret the provisions concerned. It also engages in a systemic and teleological interpretation of the Charter as a whole, viewing it as a ‘living instrument’, whose content and implications must be seen in the light of changes in actual circumstances and new situations, so as to meet current requirements in the field of social rights protection and in keeping with changes in international human rights norms and standards in the field in question.