The EU warned companies across Europe today that it is ready to legislate to get more women into boardrooms, after just 24 out of the European Union's estimated 20 million businesses signed up to a Brussels-sponsored voluntary initiative.

"Personally, I am not a great fan of quotas. However, I like the results they bring," European Union justice commissioner Viviane Reding said in launching a 10-week public consultation, after which she says she will consider EU "legislative measures".

She added that it is "high time that Europe breaks the glass ceiling that continues to bar female talent from getting to the top in Europe's listed companies".

Reding called on companies one year ago to institute "credible self-regulatory measures", with just one in seven board members at Europe's top firms a woman (13.7 percent).

She asked companies to sign a pledge "to raise female representation on their boards to 30 percent by 2015 and 40 percent by 2020", but was clearly shocked by pitiful feedback.

The European Commission, the EU's civil service, reckons it would take more than 40 years to get at least 40 percent of both sexes onto boardrooms.

"Self-regulation so far has not brought about satisfactory results," she said, citing business surveys conducted by McKinsey and Ernst & Young as proof that "the lack of women in top jobs in the business world harms Europe's competitiveness and hampers economic growth".

Belgium, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain have adopted legislation that introduces gender quotas for company boards -- but France alone accounts for half of an increase over the past year and a bit of just 1.9 percent, the Commission said.

Women make up 27 percent of boards in the largest Finnish companies, but only three percent of those in Malta, national breakdowns showed.