diff --git a/python/pipeline/pipeline_server.py b/python/pipeline/pipeline_server.py
index ed86adc1a1b23010051d897271390ab4b4f37d93..3f1157803e4e885db962a32837b09e8afbf14f96 100644
--- a/python/pipeline/pipeline_server.py
+++ b/python/pipeline/pipeline_server.py
@@ -333,7 +333,7 @@ class ServerYamlConfChecker(object):
             raise SystemExit("Failed to prepare_server: only one of yml_file"
                              " or yml_dict can be selected as the parameter.")
         if yml_file is not None:
-            with open(yml_file) as f:
+            with open(yml_file, encoding='utf-8') as f:
                 conf = yaml.load(f.read())
         elif yml_dict is not None:
             conf = yml_dict