EDIT

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<web-app xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee"

      xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"

      xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_3_0.xsd"

      version="3.0"> 

    <description>cdmlib-remote web-application instance</description>

    <display-name>cdmlib-remote-webapp</display-name>

    <welcome-file-list>

        <welcome-file>index.html</welcome-file>

    </welcome-file-list>

	<!--  This config seems to be the same as the servlet 3.0+ web application initializer

	 	  config found in eu.etaxonomy.cdm.vaadin.CdmAppInitializer but it doesn't work-->

    <listener>

        <listener-class>

            org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener

        </listener-class>

    </listener>

    <servlet>

        <description>CDM Remote API</description>

        <servlet-name>cdm-vaadin</servlet-name>

        <servlet-class>org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet</servlet-class>

        <load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>

    </servlet>

    <servlet-mapping>

        <servlet-name>cdm-vaadin</servlet-name>

        <url-pattern>/</url-pattern>

    </servlet-mapping>

    <filter>

      <filter-name>charsetFilter</filter-name>

      <filter-class>org.springframework.web.filter.CharacterEncodingFilter</filter-class>

      <init-param>

        <param-name>encoding</param-name>

        <param-value>UTF-8</param-value>

      </init-param>

      <init-param>

        <param-name>forceEncoding</param-name>

        <param-value>true</param-value>

      </init-param>

    </filter>

    <filter-mapping>

      <filter-name>charsetFilter</filter-name>

      <url-pattern>/*</url-pattern>

    </filter-mapping>

</web-app>