Barroso II brings nine women on board
With Denmark appointing Climate and Energy Minister Connie Hedegaard as the country's next commissioner and the Dutch government confirming outgoing Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes for another five-year term, the number of women in the next EU executive increases to nine, matching the number of the outgoing college.
Background
Alongside nationaity, geography (North-South, East-West), the size of the country and political affiliation, gender can also be seen as a criterion when European leaders horse-trade over top EU jobs. According to the European Commission's roadmap for equality between women and men, "women continue to be under–represented in political and economic decision-making".
Historically, this has been reflected in the positions of power in the European institutions. The Commission has never had a female president, while just two of 13 European Parliament presidents have been female since direct elections were introduced in 1979. These were both Frenchwomen, Simone Veil (1979-1982) and Nicole Fontaine (1999-2002).
Currently, only two of the 27 EU heads of state and government are women: Angela Merkel in Germany and Dalia Grybauskaite in Lithuania.
Women currently represent 35% of all MEPs in the European Parliament, higher than the European average (24%) but lower than the trio of Sweden, the Netherlands and Finland - the only EU countries with more than 40% women in parliament.
European Commission President José Manuel Barroso seems to have convinced enough EU leaders to raise the number of women in his new college.
After Greece had nominated Maria Damanaki, a socialist-affiliated member of the Hellenic Parliament, on Friday (20 November), Denmark nominated its energy and climate minister to be the country’s next commissioner yesteday (24 November).
The Netherlands, the last country to put forward a name for the EU Commission, also confirmed yesterday it was appointing outgoing competition commissioner, Neelie Kroes, who is likely to get another economic portfolio.
Barroso had reportedly voiced his desire to see Hedegaard in the post, but Danish Prime Minister Lars Løkke Ramussen had beenn hesitant to name her – not least because he would have preferred someone from his own Liberal Party to get the job rather than his conservative climate minister.
Hedegaard, who became climate and energy minister in 2004, has played a central role in the run-up to the UN climate conference in Copenhagen on 7-18 December.
She finds herself the front-runner to become the Union's next environment commissioner, unless Barroso decides to split the portfolio and create a new climate post, as is currently rumoured in Brussels (EurActiv 23/11/2009).
Up to now, the Commission has had portfolios for environment and energy, but not a specific post for climate affairs. "I have explicitly expressed to him [Barroso] that I expect Connie Hedegaard to become the new climate commissioner," Rasmussen said on Danish TV, according to Reuters.
"It is of course his decision," Rasmussen said. "He puts together his Commission, but he has confirmed to me that Connie Hedegaard will get a portfolio that matches her experience and qualifications."
Damanaki, a chemical engineer by training, is a member of the Greek parliament's committee on culture, science and education. She is a former president of the Synaspismos party on the radical left and is now a member of the Pan-Hellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK), which won national elections last month (EurActiv 05/10/09).
As for Commissioner Kroes, she is held in high regard in Brussels for her work as competition commissioner in the outgoing Commission. She would like to continue in that capacity, reports said.
With nine women in the new college, EU leaders seem to have listened to President Barroso. In a letter to EU head of state and government, Barroso emphasised the importance of gender balance in his new college of commissioners. "To allow me to propose a properly balanced team […] I urge you to see gender balance as a common goal and a shared responsibility," he said last month, calling on the leaders to "pay particular attention to the presence of women in the college as our discussions continue towards conclusion" (EurActiv 22/10/09).
Although the current Commission is the best ever in terms of gender balance (17 men and nine women), some countries have never nominated a female commissioner. Since the first Hallstein Commission in 1958, a total of 142 individuals have taken up positions as European commissioners, but just 19 of these (13%) were women.
The other women in Barroso's new Commission are Swedish Cecilia Malmström, Luxembourg Vivianne Reding, Bulgaria Roumiana Jeleva, Cypriot Androulla Vassiliou, Irish Máire Geoghegan-Quinn and Catherine Ashton, the new high reprentative and Commission vice-president.
Europeans challenge Europe