The balance of women on boards remains a national business

An EU-wide compromise on gender quotas for management boards is not yet within reach.

The European Union as a whole may be failing to find common ground on a way to improve the gender balance on company boards, but some national parliaments are outdoing the EU, with their own quotas already in place.

The German parliament decided earlier this month to introduce a mandatory quota for women on company boards of 30% by 2016 (50% by 2018); a “historic step” according to Manuela Schwesig, the federal minister of family affairs, senior citizens, women and youth. The current level of women on boards is 24%, above the EU average. The quota applies to 108 listed companies, which would amount to 170 posts to be occupied by women.

At a meeting in December, EU member states’ ministers failed to agree on a European Commission proposal – dating from 2012 – to address women’s under-representation in decision-making at the highest level by setting a target of 40% on the boards of listed companies by 2020 (by 2018 for public companies).

The failure to make progress on the issue caused anger among members of the European Parliament, which suggested a manda-tory gender quota for top management positions back in 2011. The MEPs want EU laws to be put in place if voluntary measures fail to boost the numbers.

Some member states, such as the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Hungary, Denmark and Sweden, argued that introducing binding measures at EU level would be wrong in principle and that it should be a matter for the member states. Others maintained that a move to a more equal representation would need more time.

In a bid to reach a compromise, the then-Italian presidency of the EU’s Council of Ministers came up with a flexibility clause through which countries could decide how to proceed individually, for a three-year transition period. Latvia, which holds the presidency until the end of June, pledged to “continue working” on the Commission’s proposal, without making it a key priority. A government spokesperson said that there has been no discussion at working-party level yet.

Vera Jourová, the European commissioner for justice, consumers and gender equality, who inherited the dossier from the previous Commission, said that she welcomed signs of progress on the issue from some member states and expressed her hopes of adoption of the proposal by the member states.

Data published in October on the make-up of company boards show that there is still a long way to go. Even though the EU currently has a 20% female representation, some individual member states – notably Malta (3%), the Czech Republic (4%) and Estonia (7%) – are lagging badly behind. Improvement seems unlikely in the short term in the absence of national legislation in those countries.

The EU average is improved by countries such as France (32%), Latvia (32%), Finland (29%) and Sweden (28%). It is principally the countries already ranking high up the table that are introducing national legislation.

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France has set itself a target of 40% female representation by 2017, whereas the Italian government decided that by the end of 2015 a third of board members should consist of women – they are currently on 24%. But most business leaders are still men. The EU average of female CEOs in listed companies is just 8%. Of the 28 member states, ten countries have no female company chiefs.