EU

Cherchez les femmes, Mr. Juncker!

EU
Published on 5 August 2014

”With less women, the European Commission will not obtain the majority required to be invested in next October’s vote”: Luxemburger Wort, Jean-Claude Juncker has to move swiftly to reach the 40 per cent women quota in his 28-members team.

If the European Parliament’s president, Martin Schulz’s statement on gender equality in the Commission is to be taken seriously, the assembly will not approve a board less feminine that the outgoing one.

However, notes the daily, until the end of July, only four women have been appointed by member states as EU commissioners — Cecilia Malmström (Sweden), Věra Jourová (Czech Republic), Alenka Bratušek (Slovenia), Federica Mogherini (Italy) — which is far from “Juncker’s committment to have at least 40 per cent of female commissioners”. Seven women are missing. Juncker has until the end of August to find them, and he can hope that the countries that did not designate their commissioners yet — Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland and Slovakia — will give him a hand.

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