Brussels, 09/01/2013 (Agence Europe) - The United Kingdom is not lowering its guard with regard to quotas on the number of women sitting on the boards of major companies quoted on the stock exchange. A report by the House of Lords rejects the draft directive put forward by Commissioner Reding, by invoking the subsidiarity principle. In adopting such a position, the House of Lords has sent a reasoned opinion to the Commission, as had the Czech, Polish, Danish, Swedish and Dutch parliaments previously. National parliaments have until 15 January to give their opinions on this matter. The French Senate, however, and the German Bundesrat, along with the Austrian, Portuguese and Irish parliaments, have given their full support to the initiative to introduce a 40% quota of women for non-executive posts on the boards of major European companies quoted on the stock exchange. If less than a third of national parliaments send in a reasoned opinion, the subsidiarity principle cannot be invoked.
Even before this initiative had been announced, the United Kingdom had already appeared rather disinclined towards these quotas. According to the BBC, following the debate in the House of Lords on Monday 7 January, Matthew Hancock, the minister for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills had reaffirmed that the British government did not believe the directive to be in line with the subsidiarity principle and that such decisions should, if possible, be taken at a national level. The minister also explained that his government was more in favour of a voluntary approach and did not agree with the need to set out European targets. (MD/transl.fl)