Brussels, 05/10/2012 (Agence Europe) - Viviane Reding, the commissioner responsible for justice, fundamental rights and citizenship, has already been able to get into her stride with regard to feminine quotas in large companies - ahead of time and on converted ground. She explained her intention to present a “subsidiarity-friendly proposal” to the European Parliament, given that her draft directive is already being bitterly discussed even before it is unveiled.
Speaking during a conference at the European Parliament dedicated to gender equality and the role of the EU, Reding gave details of her intentions to break the much talked-about glass ceiling that prevents women from taking on executive posts. Her legislative proposal is awaited this month and she promises to have been guided during the drafting of it by “the principle of subsidiary and proportionality”, so dear to her. She proposes, for example, to address only the share of female non-executive directors on boards, saying it should increase to 40% within a reasonable time frame. She says that SMEs should be exempt, and that only qualifications should be a criterion for selection, but also that any quota legislation should be temporary, until the objective has been achieved, and flexible in case no candidate of the under-represented gender is available. She sees all these as examples providing sufficient arguments so that MEPs “sitting in legal affairs or European affairs committees in your national parliaments should not be tempted to question the Commission's initiative on subsidiarity grounds”. (MD/transl.jl)