Brussels, 05/03/2013 (Agence Europe) - The rapporteurs on the issue of quotas for women on the boards of large companies have given their views just a few days before Women's Day 2013. Evelyn Regner (S&D, Austria) and Rodi Kratsa-Tsagaropoulou (EPP, Greece) have shown unconditional support for Viviane Reding's controversial proposal.
Causing quite a stir, the commissioner for fundamental rights, Viviane Reding, suggested at the end of 2012 that a quota of 40% should be set for women non-executive board members of European companies quoted on the stock exchange. The European Parliament and Council then began their respective legislative procedures. The Parliament is expected to conclude with a plenary vote in November this year. Kratsa, the co-rapporteur on this issue, states she is now “in favour of a concrete target. The proposal offers a realist and workable way to achieve it”. Regner took the view that 40% gives “us something to aim for, which is good”. Nonetheless, she admits that the figure will be difficult to achieve and that “having a board with at least 30% is needed in order to change the whole way of working, the way of looking at things”. She therefore recommends that “we should be flexible”, saying, for example, that “when you have an enterprise which is producing things consumed by men and where mostly men are working, I don't think we should have a board with 30% women”.
Some wonder whether there is any point in having a legislative proposal for such a small proportion of women. Kratsa does not see things in that way, saying that, in her view, the initiative is above all symbolic and that: “If women were treated better in the lower rungs of the hierarchy, we wouldn't need special measures to get them to reach the top. The more opportunities women have, the easier they will get into boardrooms”.
The European Parliament will also place gender equality on the agenda at the end of the week on the occasion of Women's Day on 8 March. The parliamentary committee on women's rights and gender equality will, among other things, hold an inter-parliamentary meeting on Thursday 7 March on “women's response to the crisis”. The chairman, Mikael Gustafsson (GUE/NGL, Sweden) will take part in a chat on Facebook, on Thursday 7 March. (MD/transl.jl)