(Brussels) “It is only through a coherent approach in European social policy that the growing divergence between Member States can be resolved”. For this reason, the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Community (COMECE) and Caritas Europa welcome the proposal of the Secretary General of the Council of Europe (CoE), Thorbjørn Jagland, to include the Council of Europe’s European Social Charter in the European Pillar of Social Rights that the European Commission is due to present in March. The European Pillar aims to “strengthen the social dimension of the EU by tackling the growing inequalities in Europe”, COMECE explained. Mr Jagland, for his part, deems it necessary to “consolidate the synergy between standard-setting systems protecting fundamental social rights across the continent”, by making the Social Charter “central” to the European Pillar, so as to create a Europe “that is not only more prosperous but also more united and based on greater solidarity”, as he himself wrote in his “Opinion” sent to the Commission in December 2016 and made public on 21 January 2017. According to COMECE, such a prospect would also allow the “definition of measures to improve respect for the social rights enshrined in the Charter” and the procedures to follow in case of violation of the rules.