ABSTRACT
In global terms, housing is Europe is widely regarded as among the best developed and with the highest standards. The population of the European Union (EU) Member States, which numbers some 500 million, approximately six per cent suffered from severe housing deprivation in 2009, while some 30 million people suffered from both lack of space and poor housing conditions. The European Social Charter is a Council of Europe treaty which guarantees social and economic human rights. The Council of Europe Additional Protocol of 1995 providing for a system of Collective Complaints laid the foundations for an additional supervisory mechanism which sought to improve the effective enforcement of the social and economic rights guaranteed by the Charter. It must be transmitted to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and published within four weeks after being sent to the Committee of Ministers.
