diff --git a/scr/src/main/java/org/apache/felix/scr/impl/BundleComponentActivator.java b/scr/src/main/java/org/apache/felix/scr/impl/BundleComponentActivator.java
index 6988ed2..e68a04d 100644
--- a/scr/src/main/java/org/apache/felix/scr/impl/BundleComponentActivator.java
+++ b/scr/src/main/java/org/apache/felix/scr/impl/BundleComponentActivator.java
@@ -218,7 +218,7 @@
         {
             stream = descriptorURL.openStream();
 
-            BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader( new InputStreamReader( stream ) );
+            BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader( new InputStreamReader( stream, "UTF-8" ) );
             XmlHandler handler = new XmlHandler( m_context.getBundle(), this );
             KXml2SAXParser parser;