diff --git a/rhodecode/lib/__init__.py b/rhodecode/lib/__init__.py
--- a/rhodecode/lib/__init__.py
+++ b/rhodecode/lib/__init__.py
@@ -181,7 +181,7 @@ def generate_api_key(username, salt=None
     return hashlib.sha1(username + salt).hexdigest()
 
 
-def safe_unicode(str_, from_encoding='utf8'):
+def safe_unicode(str_, from_encoding=None):
     """
     safe unicode function. Does few trick to turn str_ into unicode
 
@@ -195,6 +195,11 @@ def safe_unicode(str_, from_encoding='ut
     if isinstance(str_, unicode):
         return str_
 
+    if not from_encoding:
+        import rhodecode
+        DEFAULT_ENCODING = rhodecode.CONFIG.get('default_encoding','utf8')
+        from_encoding = DEFAULT_ENCODING
+
     try:
         return unicode(str_)
     except UnicodeDecodeError:
@@ -215,7 +220,7 @@ def safe_unicode(str_, from_encoding='ut
         return unicode(str_, from_encoding, 'replace')
 
 
-def safe_str(unicode_, to_encoding='utf8'):
+def safe_str(unicode_, to_encoding=None):
     """
     safe str function. Does few trick to turn unicode_ into string
 
@@ -233,6 +238,11 @@ def safe_str(unicode_, to_encoding='utf8
     if isinstance(unicode_, str):
         return unicode_
 
+    if not to_encoding:
+        import rhodecode
+        DEFAULT_ENCODING = rhodecode.CONFIG.get('default_encoding','utf8')
+        to_encoding = DEFAULT_ENCODING
+
     try:
         return unicode_.encode(to_encoding)
     except UnicodeEncodeError: