Brussels, 10/07/2014 (Agence Europe) - The women in the College of European Commissioners are preparing to call on Jean-Claude Juncker to nominate at least 10 women commissioners in his team.
A letter is expected to be addressed to the future president of the European Commission over the next few days, once all the signatures from the nine European Commissioners had been made, according to an announcement made by Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou on Thursday 10 July.
Women European commissioners currently form a third of the College and are calling on Juncker to demand that member states nominate more women to the posts of commissioner. In the draft of the letter, which EUROPE has seen, the women commissioners are also insisting that, as their own experience testifies, the organisation's effective performance also depends on a diversified leadership. Gender equality advocated by the EU must be translated into an increase and not a cut in the number of women commissioners, insist the nine. They therefore want the next Commission to have a least 10 women commissioners on board.
The objectives appears ambitious because the first national candidates announced so far are all men (Jyrki Katainen from Finland, Vytenis Povilas Andriukaitis from Lithuania, Maros Sefcovic from Slovakia, Günther Oettinger from Germany, Radoslaw Sikorski from Poland and Johannes Hahn from Austria).
Nonetheless, the next president of the European Commission has already expressed his wish to increase the number of women in the College of Commissioners. He is therefore not expected to tolerate a drop in the number of women compared to numbers on the Barroso II Commission. This is why he could demand from the member states a list of three commissioner candidates, including one woman, ahead of the negotiations on the College during the European Council on 16 July (see EUROPE 11115). Moreover, there is also the possibility that Juncker might “reward” governments that have women candidates with important posts (portfolios or vice presidents). So far, the few women being put forward for the Junker team during the next Commission include Federica Mogherini (Italy), Kristalina Georgieva (Bulgaria) and Marianne Thyssen (Belgium). (MD)