Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-07-05-Speech-2-814-000"
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"en.20110705.43.2-814-000"2
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"Mr President, my thanks to my fellow members and to the Commission for staying here so late this evening to debate an issue which is perhaps more in keeping with the lively activity and productivity of the day than the dead of night.
I should like to add that there are initiatives in various Member States which we truly welcome, but we must work towards a single area of equality and competitiveness, which is why we are insisting on a European regulation, in order to give countries which have not taken any initiatives the chance to participate in this development and in the mobility of human resources. We also need an information campaign because, if legislation is to be applied with success, it needs as its partners society, the market and the social partners.
First of all, my thanks to my fellow members, both present and absent, from all the political groups with which we cooperated, in order to highlight an issue which is important to society and to the economy and to focus on the strong message that we want to come out of the vote on this report, which is that women need to be promoted to firms’ decision-making bodies.
The report has a dual objective: on the one hand, we want to highlight the weaknesses in society and the market and call for them to be corrected, for social justice and decency to apply, for there to be a balanced participation of both sexes where decisions and responsibility are taken. On the other hand, our objective is to stress that women are a valuable human resource, with knowledge, ambition and skills that are not exploited by companies, as this valuable human resource is under-represented on company boards.
The percentage of women on boards of directors is increasing by just one percentage point per annum. How many years will it take? How much energy will be wasted? How much talent will remain in the wings, bearing in mind that approximately 60% of graduates are women?
Research has clearly shown – I shall not bore you with numbers, there is a lot of interesting information in the report – that, when women are involved in companies’ decision-making bodies, they turn in better results, perform better and are more efficient.
If our economy today is to achieve the faster growth that Europe needs and if our companies are to become more competitive, they need additional characteristics and competitive advantages. These can be found in female gifts; I say ‘gifts’ because, apart from their knowledge and education, women have special skills, which are very important to companies, to administration, to understanding and to communication with the market. These female characteristics have proven valuable and companies have tried to make use of them in various ways. The actions applied by numerous companies are very widespread and well appreciated.
Unfortunately, the meagre results force us to seek serious commitments from companies and effective action to give space and opportunities to women.
What we need are arrangements to help balance family and work commitments, a meritocracy, transparency in the administration, in the management of human resources and in the composition of boards of directors. We are calling on companies to undertake to achieve these targets for female representation on their boards of directors and for the Member States to apply women-friendly policies which encourage women to take up demanding careers in this area.
We are calling on the European Commission to map the current situation, thereby supporting the Commissioner in the binding targets already set for female representation at boardroom level. We are calling for it to promote actions to raise awareness, to support actions which companiess have implemented on their own and, if they do not bring in results, we cannot wait any longer. The Commissioner was very clear, we agree with its undertaking and, if we are to have immediate results, we need legislative proposals with targets of 30% female participation by 2015 and even more – 40% – by 2020, bearing in mind, of course, the differences underlying companies."@en1
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