Kirjoitus European Voice -lehdessä: Adding to Europe´s list of top women 12.6.2008
It was interesting to read Mrs Ilana Bet-El’s views on the Commission Vice-President Margot Wallström’s efforts to put women on top. Mrs Wallström has been writing and speaking about the need for equal representation of women in the EU politics since January, when The Times first published her views on the subject. I find her seminal work really important and I cannot agree with Mrs Bet-El’s view that Mrs Wallström tries in vain to put women on top.
It is a truly sad fact that there has never been a female President of the Commission and only two female Presidents of the Parliament. As Mrs Bet-El stated, there are many possibilities as to why nothing is done about gender balance in EU top posts, but they all tend to boil down to the same reason: men select other men. Now it is time for the change.
The EU leaders have already started negotiations about the nominees for four EU top jobs. These include two entirely new posts created by the Treaty - the EU President and the High Representative in Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. The other two top jobs will belong to the presidents of the European Commission and the Parliament. When the EU leaders are considering their nominees they should not just seek a balance between Member States and political families but also between women and men. In the name of gender balance, one or two of four EU top jobs should be given for women.
There is no shortage of capable women in the EU, but surprisingly few of them have been mentioned as potential candidates for the EU top posts. Mrs Wallström mentioned already some in her Financial Times article on the 23rd of May: Angela Merkel (Chancellor of Germany), Tarja Halonen (President of Finland), Vaira Vike-Reiberga (President of Latvia 1999-2007), Mary Robinson (President of Ireland 1990-97), Dora Bakoyannis (Foreign Minister of Greece), Ursula Plassnik (Foreign Minister of Austria), Margaret Beckett (former British Foreign Secretary), and Emma Bonino (former Italian Minister for trade and European commissioner).
To the above list I would like to add some other potential names as well. What about Mrs Margot Wallström herself (Vice-President of the Commission), Anne-Marie Neyts-Uyttebroeck (President of the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party), Anna Cecilia Malmström (Minister for European Union Affairs in the Swedish government), Diana Wallis (Vice President of the European Parliament), Neelie Kroes (European Commissioner for Competition), Paula Lehtomäki (Finnish minister for environment), Benita Ferrero-Waldner (European commissioner), or Lena Ek (Member of the European Parliament) to name just a few?
Gender equality has been a principle of the European Union since the Treaty of Rome. After 50 years later one can still get shocked when watching the EU family photo; there are not too many women on the spot. I hope that Mrs Bet-El’s argument that Wallström’s call for female EU top leaders appears to have had as much effect in Brussels as a whistle in the wind is wrong. We still have time to make a change before the leaders for the new EU posts have to be assigned.
Finally, as Mrs Wallström has stated in her blog, I would like to point out that the call for action is not addressed only at women. It is also in men’s interest that women are equally represented in politics. It is about democratic representation, something that we all find extremely important, don’t we?
Member of European Parliament Anneli Jäätteenmäki (ALDE)
Vice-Chairwoman of Constitutional Affairs Committee
