Ten years after the European Commission presented its proposals to increase the female presence at the top of companies, the community institutions have managed to agree on the directive that will require that at least 40% of the positions on the boards of directors in listed companies (non-executives) are occupied "by the underrepresented sex" which both then in 2012 and now in 2022 means women. The agreement gives time until June 2026 to reach this figure, which is lowered to 33% in 2025 if both non-executive and executive positions are computed, an obligation from which companies with less than 250 employees are exempt.
"We needed this directive to have grit and that is why there will be fines and other instruments to make it effective," assured the Austrian Socialist MEP Evelyn Regner when presenting the agreement this morning at a press conference in Strasbourg. For the sake of the agreement, the definition of the instruments to make this 40% objective a reality remains in the hands of the national governments, which, as soon as the directive enters into force, will have to foresee punitive measures to ensure compliance. The EU proposes that they range from fines to the annulment of appointments that do not contribute to reaching the European goal, passing through the public announcement of vacancies.
Companies that have less than 40% women on their boards of directors "must apply transparent and gender-neutral criteria in the appointment of directors and give priority to the underrepresented sex when there are two candidates of different sex with the same qualifications", explains the community executive in a statement. In the event that the rejected candidate requests it, companies must be able to publish the qualification criteria. Appointment procedures must be "clear and transparent" and allow applicants to be assessed "according to their individual merits, regardless of their sex," insists Brussels.
Currently, only 30.6% of board seats in the EU are occupied by women, a figure that is based on huge national differences (45.3% in France compared to 8.5% in Cyprus, according to data from the European Commission). ). When the directive began to be processed, the percentage was only 15% and what has happened during the last decade shows that only in those countries where legally binding quotas have been adopted has the presence of women in the leadership of companies increased. To date, nine EU countries have opted for binding quotas and another 15, for recommendations.
"I don't like quotas, but I like what quotas do," former European commissioner Vivianne Reding, the promoter of the original proposal within the Barroso commission, used to say. However, the legal project faced strong national resistance that kept it practically in the drawer for ten years. The French presidency of the Council of the Union, whose mandate ends at the end of the month, set out to give it a boost and last night the community institutions announced that a political agreement on the legal text had finally been reached.
The pact must be formalized in the coming days by the Council and the European Parliament. The directive will enter into force 20 days after its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union. As of this moment, the Governments will have two years to adopt the measures that are necessary in each country to achieve the objectives of the new European directive, an approach compatible with the fact that in recent years many have already adopted its own legal frameworks to promote parity in companies.
For the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, who as a minister in the German Government was among the great supporters of the community initiative and then included the commitment to adopt it when she was confirmed in her current position, it is also an important achievement. "This is a great day for the women of Europe. Also for companies, because more diversity means more growth and more innovation," she highlighted in a tweet published along with a photograph with former Commissioner Reding, who like her belongs to the European conservative family .
"The benefit to companies of having more women in leadership positions is obvious," insists Von der Leyen, referring to reports showing that diversity leads to greater productivity and creativity. "There are plenty of women qualified for the top jobs: they should be able to get there." The Dutch socialist MEP Lara Wolters, who was a fellow in the European Parliament when the proposal was presented ("this means either that I am very young or that the proposal is very old"), has stressed that the measure will have an impact beyond of the most highly qualified professionals. "There will be a trickle down effect, the difference will be in the company culture and the bottom line," says Walters.
