EU set to introduce quota for women on company boards to boost equality

By Gabriela Baczynska

BRUSSELS – European Union negotiators are anticipated to present closing approval to the bloc’s first-ever quota for the proportion of ladies on company boards, a lawmaker mentioned on Tuesday, in a bid to spice up illustration and enhance gender equality.

The draft legislation would oblige listed firms in all 27 EU member international locations to have girls take up a minimum of 40% of non-executive board seats, or that girls occupy 33% of govt and non-executive roles mixed.

The proposal, which had stalled a decade in the past, acquired new momentum with contemporary backing from Germany and France this 12 months.

“It appears we’ve lastly been in a position to kiss the Sleeping Magnificence awake,” Lara Wolters, a Dutch socialist and a lead negotiator for the European Parliament on the matter advised Reuters.

The problem of gender illustration within the bloc of 450 million folks varies broadly, with Estonia having 9% of non-executive board seats held by girls and France greater than 45%. The latter has its personal authorized goal of 40% and is the one EU nation to surpass that objective.

The European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE), an EU company, mentioned final April such binding quotas have confirmed more practical in bettering steadiness on boards in comparison with international locations legislating softer measures, or none in any respect.

General, girls’s illustration on boards grew after France, Germany and Italy launched nationwide insurance policies since 2010. However progress has stalled just lately with lower than a 3rd of non-executive board members within the EU’s largest listed companies being girls, it mentioned.

The subsequent negotiating spherical, anticipated to be the final one, between the European Parliament and the 27 EU international locations begins at 1300 GMT on Tuesday and Wolters was optimistic for a deal later within the day.

She mentioned the parliament was pushing for 2025 because the goal date for attaining the board quotas, in comparison with 2027 in an earlier proposal. The sanction for failing to ship was nonetheless beneath dialogue, she mentioned, with “naming and shaming” the laggards a possible compromise.

Wolters mentioned the landmark settlement would set the course for the longer term through which massive however not listed firms must also be coated, in addition to the EU’s personal establishments just like the European Central Financial institution:

“That is one foot within the door. After which, we go from there.”