News from the European Women's Lobby
Just three of the 20 positions of chairs of European Parliament committees go to women
While the overall trend of women's representation in the European Parliament has steadily increased since 1984, last June's elections showed a stagnation of the female representation in the EU institution representing the voice of the European people.
The proportion of women MEPs rose from 17.3% after the 1984 elections to 31% in 2003 and 30.3% after the 2004 elections.
The situation is disappointing in terms of women's representation in the EP governing bodies especially in terms of chairing positions of parliamentary committees as after the last elections women only represent 15% of those who chair parliamentary committees.
Three women have been appointed chairs: Pervenche Bérès (PES, France) will chair the Economic and Monetary Affairs committee; Luisa Morgantini (GUE/NGL, Italy) will chair the Development Committee and Anna Zaborska (EPP-ED, Slovakia) will chair the Women's Rights and Gender Equality Committee.
In terms of other governing bodies, only two political groups are co-chaired by women (20% of chairpersons) and only six of the 20 members of the EP Bureau are women (30%). This shows that while the "critical mass" of women in the EP reached 30%, the position of women is still quite weak in terms of their internal influence within the EP and that negotiations between political groups for the appointment of chairpersons did not take the gender aspect into consideration. Apart from Cyprus and Malta, who have not sent a single woman to the Parliament, Poland has the worst record of female representation with only seven women MEPs out of a total of 54 MEPs (13%) and Sweden is the only country whose country representatives are mostly female (57.9 %).
For more complete figures concerning women and men in the newly elected European Parliament please contact Cécile Gréboval at the EWL Secretariat: greboval@womenlobby.org.
Eight women in the new EU Commission
As the future Commission President requested before the European Parliament, the number of women in the Barroso Commission has reached eight with the nomination of the former Dutch Transport Minister Neelie Smit-Kroes. José Manuel Barroso declared himself particularly pleased with the strong female presence, "the largest number ever seen in the Commission".
Margot Wallström from Sweden was nominated First Vice President in charge of Institutional Relations and Communication Strategy.
For more information visit: www.europa.eu.int/comm/commissioners/newcomm_en.htm