Institution of social reports by the governments of Council of Europe member States

Recommendation 685 (1972)

Author(s):

Parliamentary Assembly

Origin

Assembly debate on 24 October 1972 (17th Sitting) (see Doc. 3163, report of the Committee on Social and Health Questions). Text adopted by the Assembly on 24 October 1972 (17th Sitting).

The Assembly,

1. Considering that technological progress and economic growth are now generally recognised to have repercussions on the quality of life ;

2. Considering that the increased mobility of persons in the Council of Europe member States makes it essential to work towards the harmonisation of social measures ;

3. Believing that the best method of enlightening public discussion and facilitating decision-making on social and related policies is to provide for social reports, based on internationally comparable quantitative data, which assess social advance in the Council of Europe member States, e.g. in the standards of living and health, employment situation, social mobility and living conditions ;

4. Noting with satisfaction that in recent years the governments of certain Council of Europe member States have already taken steps to publish social reports or similar publications ;

5. Welcoming the current efforts of OECD to develop social indicators, and those of the United Nations to work out a system of demographic, manpower and social statistics, and stressing that these activities should be taken into account when defining the criteria on which national social reports should be based ;

6. Believing that experts and politicians must work closely together in order to ensure that social reports contain all the data needed to define the main objectives of future social progress ;

7. Considering that the advanced stage of economic and industrial development reached by most member States could enable the Council of Europe to play a particularly useful role in promoting the institution of national social reports,

8. Recommends that the Committee of Ministers :

8.1 work out a blueprint for a "social report" which takes into consideration the relevant work of the competent international organisations and is designed to assess social progress or retrogression in the Council of Europe member States and also achieve a large measure of international comparability ;

8.2 either invite the governments of the Council of Europe member States, on the basis of the results of the work proposed in paragraph 8 (i), to draw up at regular intervals national "social reports" ;

8.3 or, bearing in mind that several member governments lack the necessary data, instruments and administrative structure to work out such reports, charge the Secretary General of the Council of Europe to produce regular reviews of the social situation in each member country on the model of what OECD has been doing for many years in the economic field ; this series would be published parallel to the OECD Economic Surveys and be entitled "Council of Europe Social Surveys".