WUNRN
European Women's Lobby - EWL
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Direct Link to Full 3-Page Fact Sheet: http://ec.europa.eu/justice/gender-equality/files/documents/140303_factsheet_wob_en.pdf
After having been adopted by the
European Parliament in November last year, the directive proposal has been sent
to the Council of Ministers, who is currently discussing it. The fact sheet
shows that the representation of women on non-executive company boards
(supervisory boards) in the European Union is increasing four times faster now
than it had been the case before 2010 (by average 2,0pp per year instead of
0,55pp), but it shows as well that this trend is mainly due to some Member
States that have already introduced national legislative action, like for
example France and Italy. The impact therefore stays limited; the Member States
do not take the possibility of increasing the number of women in economic
leadership positions before European legislation forces them to do so. The EWL
calls since many years for binding measures including effective sanctions as
they proved to be the catalyst for an equal representation of women and men on
supervisory boards (Click here to read the EWL report women on boards in
Europe from a snails face to a giant leap).
These findings confirm the European Women’s Lobby’s opinion that active policies from the EU are needed and reminds therefore the European Member States, when voting soon on the draft European directive “improving the gender balance among non-executive directors of companies listed on stock exchanges and related measures” through the Council of Ministers, of their commitment to the fundamental European value, gender equality, enshrined in the European Treaties since 1957, reaffirmed with the Treaty of Lisbon and the binding Charta of Fundamental Rights, as well as through various forms of soft law like for example the Women’s Charta and the Strategies for Equality between Women and Men.
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