Brussels, 11/07/2014 (Agence Europe) - The women who currently have a seat in the College of Commissioners say Jean-Claude Juncker will be making a good start to his term of office if he appoints ten women or more as commissioners during his future mandate as president of the European Commission (see EUROPE 11119). Neelie Kroes, Cecilia Malmström, Kristina Georgieva, Maria Damanaki, Androulla Vassiliou, Connie Hedegaard, Maire Geoghegan Quinn and Catherine Ashton wrote to Juncker to this end on Friday 11 July. They stress that, over the last decade, around one third of the College has been made up of women, “because José Manuel Barroso absolutely insisted on it”. In their call, the eight Commissioners also note that “the EU has pledged to make ongoing progress towards gender equality. Progress of this kind calls for an increase, not a reduction, in the number of female commissioners, particularly as the EU has now become a family of 28”. Even so, this may be a tough call for Juncker, who has received only nominations of men from the 10 or so member states which have so far disclosed the names of those they wish as their next commissioners, ahead of the European summit of 16 July. (MD)