A campaign has been gaining ground in EU circles to have at least one woman in the two new positions of power to be created by the Lisbon Treaty – the permanent president of the EU Council and the foreign policy chief.
With the European Commission president and European Parliament president posts already filled by two men – José Manuel Barroso and Jerzy Buzek respectively – their argument is that Europe needs a least one woman to fill a top EU position. Leading politicians whose names have been floated include former Irish President Mary Robinson and current Greek Education Minister Anna Diamantopoulou, a former European commissioner for social affairs.
Polish strategy could favour Robinson
Indeed, Robinson's name has cropped up repeatedly in the media in recent weeks as a possible contender for the job of Council president, from outside the group of 'usual suspects' holding government positions at present. Also, her potential candidacy has benefited from swift backing from civil society.
A new Facebook group backing Robinson for Council president attracted 4,500 members in just one week, compared with a meagre 225 members supporting Tony Blair in a similar movement.
It also appears that political arguments over the identikit picture of the future Council president may develop in Robinson's favour. Polish daily Dziennik yesterday (13 October) reported that Warsaw will send its official position concerning the kind of competences the new Council president should have to other EU capitals later this week.
The Poles, it is claimed, will take a strong line against the presidential position becoming the influential globe-trotting 'face' of the EU that many experts expect it to be, particularly should a global figure such as Tony Blair get the job (EurActiv 13/10/09).
Instead, Warsaw foresees the new president as a secretary general-type figure who will chair EU summits and coordinate the daily work of the Council, without taking any strategic decisions.
According to European Commission sources, Spain and other EU countries are also interested in the idea of the Council president being more of a low-key organiser, and could back Poland in its motion.
Under this scenario, EU leaders could coalesce around Mary Robinson as a candidate, the sources said. Robinson herself has yet to speak publicly on the issue, and was not available for comment when her assistants were contacted by EurActiv.
More women on the new Commission?
The question of female participation in EU politics has been in the spotlight throughout 2009, particularly following the launch in May of the 50/50 Initiative, a campaign to ensure equal representation of women and men in the European institutions.
While the 50/50 campaigners were underwhelmed by the results of the June European Parliament elections, noting "slight progress" in that the proportion of women parliamentarians increased from 30% in the 1999-2004 term to 35% today, they and others are awaiting with interest the appointees to the new European Commission.
Commission President Barroso is believed to be pushing hard to have a greater number of women in his new college of commissioners. In his first college, following various reshuffles, Barroso had a maximum of ten female commissioners out of 27. Indeed, he asked the two EU newcomers, Bulgaria and Romania, to propose female commissioners when the countries joined in 2007.
However it is far from certain that there will be more women under Barroso II. So far Bulgaria has announced a female candidate (Rumiana Jeleva), and Luxembourg, Sweden, Austria and Cyprus are expected to appoint or reappoint female commissioners.
Commission Vice-President Margot Wallström, a Swede, has been a consistent and vocal supporter of introducing gender quotas in both European politics and industry, in order to speed up the process of achieving full equality in all sectors of society. Speaking to EurActiv, Wallström argued that while the issue can be a divisive one, she believes very strongly that quotas are needed to "create a level playing field".
"In all the countries where quotas have been introduced, they have worked," she said, citing as an example Norwegian quotas for female participation in industry. Wallström concluded that "without quotas, full equality may not be achieved in Europe for many decades".
The Swedish commissioner stopped short of offering explicit support exclusively for Mary Robinson, but did go as far as joining the Facebook group supporting her candidacy and featured it on her profile page.
(EurActiv Poland contributed to this article.)
