- EU gender balance goal at risk
- 14 men, 5 women nominated
- Von der Leyen faces resistance
Ursula von der Leyen is set to miss her goal of a gender-balanced senior team at the European Commission after EU states rejected her request to offer male and female candidates.
The EU’s first female president, re-elected for a historic second term last month, is assembling her team of commissioners. These senior EU officials, like government ministers, supervise the bloc’s environment, technology, and industrial policies, negotiate trade deals, enforce European law, distribute billions of grants, and draft the union’s budget.
Following her re-election, von der Leyen stated that she aimed for “an equal share of men and women” at the highest levels. However, her ambition is jeopardized because member nations refused her plea to nominate two candidates, one male and one female.
Before the August 30 deadline for submitting names to Brussels, 14 men and five women have been recommended as candidates, according to a study of government announcements and local media reports. Of the seven countries that have yet to complete the nomination process, two (Lithuania and Romania) are expected to approve male candidate nominations soon. In contrast, the other two (Belgium and Denmark) are primarily likely to nominate a male candidate. Men lead in two countries that have yet to be nominated (Italy and Portugal), while women are the favorites in Bulgaria.
In the worst-case scenario, the new commission, which is set to enter office in December, could have only 22% or 26% women (including von der Leyen), a worse gender balance than the previous panel, which had 44% female participation when it began office in 2019.
Lina Gálvez, the chair of the European Parliament’s gender equality committee, urged von der Leyen to demand that EU nations offer her female candidates. “We never achieve anything unless we push the envelope.” “Especially now, when anti-gender movements are the core of fascist, anti-democratic movements … we cannot show that our commitment to gender equality is weak.”
Von der Leyen’s work is complicated by an exemption from offering female candidates when nations renominate their serving commissioner. Most returns are men, such as Thierry Breton of France, who recently sparred with the tech magnate Elon Musk, and Maroš Šefčovič, a commission vice-president with a vast portfolio encompassing EU-UK ties. Latvia’s Valdis Dombrovskis, the Netherlands’ Wopke Hoekstra, and Hungary’s Oliver Várhelyi have also been invited back to Brussels. Dubravka Šuica, a former Croatian mayor in charge of demography policy, is the sole female nominee for re-election.
This exemption has created anger. “Why should we have a woman again when [our] ideal candidate is a man, and Slovakia can nominate Šefčovič for a fifth time,” asked one EU ambassador, somewhat exaggerating for comic effect. Slovakia has never had a female commissioner and has renominated Šefčovič for a fourth term.
Several EU leaders have stated that they have no intention of selecting a woman because there is no legal obligation to do so. “Respectfully and by the treaties, we have decided to send one name,” Ireland’s prime minister, Simon Harris, said in June, confirming his intention to nominate finance minister Michael McGrath.
Many EU cities were not pleased with the call for two candidates, as the coveted position of EU commissioner is also subject to difficult talks between governing parties, prime ministers, and presidents. Lithuania’s prime minister, Ingrida Šimonytė, called her country’s procedure “baroquely complex” as her cabinet declared its decision to send one of her predecessors, Andrius Kubilius, to Brussels following a bruising tug-of-war over the position.
Countries that ignore von der Leyen’s request for gender equality may see their candidates relegated to weaker portfolios rather than the “big economic job” many countries aim for. Previously, governments that disappointed the commission had their candidates in charge of multilingualism, education, and culture.
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“Every commissioner wants resources, money [to spend on policies], power, and competence, and it’s not possible for all of them,” Sophia Russack of the Centre for European Policy Studies in Brussels explained. “There are not 27 or 26 important portfolios,” Russack remarked, implying this may be a sort of leverage – “‘ either you send me a woman, or you get one of those portfolios that nobody wants.'”
A male-dominated top staff would be an embarrassment to the EU’s gender equality agenda, which in 2020 called for a “gender balance of 50% at all levels of [Commission] management by the end of 2024.
Insiders believe that a less gender-balanced commission increases the likelihood of commissioner candidates being rejected by the European Parliament. All nominees must appear before MEP committees before the assembly approves the full commission. “One or another will be targeted on their suitability and the fact that their government didn’t bother to propose a woman,” according to another EU ambassador.
A European Commission representative declined to comment on the contenders’ gender balance.
