Gender quota plans back to the drawing board

A new approach to controversial plans in the pipeline to set mandatory levels on the number of women serving on the boards of publicly-listed companies are expected to be announced by the European Commission on 14 November.

The plans are being redrafted after the original proposals by EU Commissioner Viviane Reding were sent back to the drawing board after the EU’s College of Commissioners vetoed them this week.

Malta was one of a number of EU member states – that amounted to a blocking minority – that were resisting the plans.

The original proposal aimed at imposing sanctions on stock market-listed companies if they did not reserve at least 40 per cent of their non-executive board positions for women by 2020, but at the end of the day they proved too controversial for the rest of the EU Commissioners.

It seems that the commissioner spearheading the controversial plan had intended to call a press conference after Tuesday’s meeting with fellow commissioners to formally announce the proposals, but instead she will now be working on a new set of proposals to be announced on 14 November, if they are approved by her colleagues at the Commission.

In a recent interview with this newspaper, Justice and Family Minister Chris Said had argued – in the face of uproar over Malta’s stance against the plans by the country’s women’s lobbies – that when it came to this particular issue, the principle of subsidiarity has to be applied. That means that the issue should be left to the member states themselves to deal with.

The government agreed in essence that more women are needed in boardrooms, but it did not agree that the EU should impose how to achieve this aim in respect of all member states. The government has actually imposed its own quotas when it comes to the civil service and today it has the highest level ever of women in senior positions.

The controversial issue has become something of a hot topic, with several MEPs campaigning against the idea of enforced quotas and welcoming efforts by some EU capitals to block quota proposals and nine member states sending a letter to the Commission in September, calling for compulsory quotas to be abandoned.

A letter by ministers from Britain, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta and the Netherlands said the signatories “agree with the commission’s stance that there are still too few women on the boards of publicly listed companies”, adding that the “myriad barriers women encounter throughout their careers are unacceptable”.

However, it went on to say that the signatories “do not support the adoption of legally binding provisions for women on company boards at European level” highlighting the need for decisions on increasing the role of women to be left to national governments.

Speaking at a joint meeting of the EU’s high-level group on gender equality and diversity and the European Parliament’s Women’s Rights and Gender Equality committee, Commissioner Reding recently told participants: “We have real problems in today’s society,” with female representation in business. The fact that the European Commission is working on a legal instrument to balance the representation of men and women on corporate boards comes as no surprise.

“There are only 27 per cent of women in top-level management positions at the European commission,” Reding added. “Only 13.5 per cent sit on company boards and 2.5 per cent are in chair positions.”

In a report drawn up by top business schools from across the EU, aimed at identifying competent women who could potentially be immediately appointed to boards, 8,000 were recognised for their various talents and skills.

“This shows we have trained talent, but unfortunately it is not reflected in high-position jobs,” Reding argued.