- The EU Commission head Ursula von der Leyen is hoping for a majority for a Europe-wide quota of women of at least 40 percent on the boards of large companies.
- With the new traffic light coalition in Berlin made up of the SPD, the Greens and the FDP, the chances are good that Germany will give up its resistance, said the CDU politician von der Leyen.
- To this end, a legislative proposal that was put on hold years ago should be revived, writes “Financial Times”.
According to this, at least 40 percent of the supervisory boards of listed companies should be made up of women in the future. Small and medium-sized businesses should not be affected. The then EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding made a corresponding move in 2012.
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The initiative for a women’s quota was rejected by the German government under Angela Merkel. Von der Leyen (left) and Merkel (right) both belong to the CDU.
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At that time, only 15.6 percent of the supervisory boards in Germany were women. There was no sufficient majority among the EU countries. Von der Leyen was in Merkel’s cabinet at the time. Since 2015, there has been a women’s quota for supervisory boards in Germany of over 30 percent for particularly large companies.
In addition, the former grand coalition of the Union and the SPD agreed on a quota for board members shortly before the summer break last year. In addition to the change of government, the EU Commission is now also hoping for a tailwind from France, which has held the EU Council Presidency since January 1st. A gender quota was introduced in companies there in 2011, which has been 40 percent since 2017.