European Plan to Put More Women on Boards Runs Into Opposition

The following is an excerpt of an article from:


The New York Times
Tuesday, September 18, 2012

European Plan to Put More Women on Boards Runs Into Opposition

By STEPHEN CASTLE LONDON — A planned European Union law to impose sanctions on companies that do not allocate at least 40 percent of the seats on their boards to women has drawn enough opposition from Britain and other countries to risk being blocked before it is officially proposed.

Nine E.U. countries have signed a letter to the European Commission, the Union’s executive agency, opposing the proposed law, which is due to be published in draft form next month.

The proposal has been championed by Viviane Reding, vice president of the commission, who has been pressuring European companies since last year to improve the representation of women in top management or risk having penalties imposed on them.

The signatories argue that although barriers to success for women in E.U. companies are “unacceptable,” national governments should determine what sanctions, if any, should be applied to companies that fail to improve.

Under E.U. voting rules, the proposed law requires the support of a weighted majority of member states in a system based broadly on the size of a country. The opposition of the nine countries that signed the letter could therefore be sufficient to scuttle the plans.

One European diplomat said that many of the countries that signed the letter did not want to kill the proposal outright. They do, however, want to ensure that all decisions on how or whether to enforce quotas remain under the control of national authorities.

In fact, drafts of the plans suggest that national governments would have some influence over sanctions that could range from financial penalties to exclusion from bidding on public contracts.

Still, leaving more discretion to the member states could significantly dilute the plan drawn up by Ms. Reding, who last year issued an ultimatum to European companies to increase representation of women in top management.

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