Nine EU countries, including the Czech Republic joined forces in the fight against the introduction of mandatory quotas for women in top management of companies. In a letter addressed to the European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and EU Commissioner for Justice Viviane Reding the countries refuse to support legally binding quotas, although they recognize that the number of women on boards of European companies is low. According to them, the problem should be dealt with at the level of individual states, not the whole EU.
Besides the Czech Republic, the letter was signed by Bulgaria, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Hungary, Malta, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. The letter is a response of these countries to the statement that next month Viviane Reding will sumbit a draft of a new EU directive according to which the companies listed on European stock exchanges should increase the representation of women on their boards to 30% by 2015 and to 40% by 2020. If the proposal is approved, all 27 member states will have to introduce the mandatory quotas in their national legislation by 1.1.2020 at the latest. The above-mentioned nine countries have, however, a sufficient number of votes in the European Parliament to block the potential new directive.
A report published by the European Commission in March 2012 states that women only occupy one senior position out of seven (13.7 %) on the board of directors of the most prominent companies n Europe. This figure was 11.8 % in 2010. At this rate, it will take more than 40 years to achieve a considerably more balanced representation of women and men (at least 40 % for both sexes).
-kk-