Currently, the character encoding for source files needs to be configured individually for each and every plugin that processes source files.
Life would become easier if there was a dedicated POM element like ${project.sourceEncoding} which could be use to specify the encoding once per entire project.
Please see [0] for the related thread from the mailing list, and [1] for some further descriptions: proposed element is now ${project.build.sourceEncoding}
[0] http://www.nabble.com/POM-Element-for-Source-File-Encoding-to14930345s177.html
[1] http://www.nabble.com/Re%3A-Maven-and-File-Encoding-p16301958s177.html
