On 7th December 2015, the historic opportunity was missed to drive forward the quality of men and women. The blame for this has to be laid at the door of some Member States of the European Union, as actually everything had been in place to agree on a quota for women on supervisory boards. However, instead of finally setting up binding rules, an agreement has been blocked as the rights of shareholders, business and national sensitivities carried a greater weight than gender equality policy.

Minority blocks proposal on women on supervisory boards of listed companies

The AK EUROPA Newsflash continuously reported on developments concerning the Commission Proposal on women on supervisory boards of listed companies. Most recently on 19 November, when it became known that a minority of Member States voiced their opposition against Europe-wide rules for women on supervisory boards. Now, that the responsible Ministers have dealt with this issue at the highest level during their meeting on 7 December in Luxembourg, it has become clear that the concerns were justified. Based on a wide range of reasons, a group of Member States voiced their opposition against any quota system, even if in reality only a commitment to a transparent selection process would have been decided. Arguments for this opposition were based on problems with partly already existing national rules, interventions in company rights or the rights of shareholders. This meant - also according to Austria as a supporter of the Directive - that an important political signal has been missed because equal opportunity is a cornerstone of democracy. Now the Dutch Presidency will see to the matter; however, the prospect of succeeding is currently at such a low level that one has to fear that the proposal will soon be history and that in the end the EU Commission will withdraw it.

Is a strategic engagement sufficient for gender equality?

On 7 December, the Ministers were also dealing with the strategic engagement for gender equality, which was for the first time introduced by the EU Commission. However, what at first glance sounds promising, is formally nothing else than a simple working document by the Commission departments and is very different from the expired strategy, which had been supported by all Commissioners. Even though the current working document also contains requirements of the old strategy, it is particular in respect of EU gender equality policy of vital importance that it is backed by the entire Commission, which therefore can also be held to account. This was also demanded by 22 Member States, which asked the EU Commission to change its working document to a legally binding document. The same is demanded by the Chamber of Labour, which pointed this fact out to the responsible EU Commissioners on a number of occasions. Now it is the turn of the EU Parliament to act as otherwise the chances to implement a genuine a binding strategy for gender equality in the coming years are looking bad.