Plan for female quotas on EU company boards dealt blow
UK and others derail proposal as row breaks out over posting that would ensure all-male European Central Bank executive
EU plans to enforce a much higher profile for women in the European business elite have been thrown into disarray, with a Brussels commissioner being told to try again on legislation to compel female quotas on company boards.
The defeat for Viviane Reding, the commissioner for fundamental rights, came amid another row over sexism at the apex of the EU. Herman Van Rompuy, the European council president, pleaded with the parliament in Strasbourg to endorse the appointment of Yves Mersch (a man), from Luxembourg, to the executive board of theEuropean Central Bank (ECB).
Mersch's appointment, which looks inevitable despite being delayed by parliamentary opposition on grounds of gender, would make the six-strong ECB executive all male, and its governing council of 23 also exclusively male.
Reding has been pushing though new draft EU legislation insisting on 40%-female quotas for company boards across Europe, with stiff penalties for noncompliance. The proposals fell foul of British-led opposition among the EU member states, with at least 10 governments reluctant to impose quotas.
Those countries argued that the issue should not be legislated at EU level but rather left to national policy-making, and that policies already being pursued in member states to redress the gender imbalance should be given time to work.
But Reding's biggest immediate problem was a lack of consensus within the European commission on the contentious draft legislation. This split caused some to question why she was trying to force the issue, if she was unable to get it past this first hurdle. It is highly unusual for the commission to draft a law that will not pass muster among the 27 commissioners.
The dispute was not split along gender lines. Quite the contrary: on Monday, Reding said she had constructed a formidable coalition, with the support of five prominent male commissioners. But four leading female commissioners – from Britain, theNetherlands, Sweden, and Denmark – opposed the proposals.
Reding said she refused to give up on the issue, and the topic would be returned to the commission next month.
The European parliament is to vote on Thursday on Mensch's appointment to the ECB, after the chamber's influential economic and monetary affairs committee rejected the German-style inflation hawk on Monday on gender grounds.
Van Rompuy told the parliament on Tuesday that female under-representation in top posts was "blatant", and that he was working to remedy it, but still believed Mersch should get the job.
Mersch's appointment would delay any real chance of redressing the total imbalance in the ECB executive until 2018.
Sharon Bowles, the Lib Dem MEP and economic committee chair who is running for governor of the Bank of England, said: "What we heard today is no different to all the promises on equality that have universally failed: we need more than just talk and promises. We are objecting to the EU's most powerful institution being run by only men for the next six years."
Existing examples
France, Spain, Belgium, Denmark and Italy have introduced quota laws, as have non-EU nations Iceland and Norway, which has had a quota system since 2006 that requires at least 40% of either sex on all listed company boards. Firms were given only two years to comply. The Spanish law, passed in 2007, obliges quoted firms with more than 250 employees to aim for a 40%-female minimum on their boards by 2015. France passed its law in 2011, forcing large companies to reserve at least 40 % of boardroom positions for women by 2017. It applies to 2,000 companies in France that are either listed, have more than 500 employees or revenues over €50m.
