Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-02-13-Speech-2-218"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20010213.9.2-218"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spoken text |
". – As the honourable Member underlines, the system that we are seeking to develop in the European Commission does not yet bear any comparison with arrangements that have existed in Sweden, and indeed in some other Member States, for some years. We can do nothing more in the circumstances than continue to strive to meet the best standards which we heartily recommend to others throughout the European Union. These are standards which I, and my colleagues in the current Commission, sincerely want to meet.
If I could respond to the specific issues raised by the honourable Member: there is not enough representation of women at any level, including the managerial ranks, in any of the European Union institutions. We are, as the honourable Member was good enough to acknowledge, making a serious effort to improve upon that in the European Commission. But in the European Parliament, for instance, I think I am right in saying that out of the ten directors only one is a woman. The position in the Council, if anything, is not even as good as that. So in each of the institutions, including the others like the Court of Justice and the Court of Auditors, there is patently need for very substantial improvement and I am very happy to have the opportunity at this Question Time in Parliament to underline that very forcibly yet again.
I believe we will reach the targets by 2005. They are not over-ambitious targets. Indeed, several of us would argue in the current Commission that they are over-modest. They are however realistic given our starting point. What we hope will be the case is that by securing that at least 20% of senior management jobs are in the hands of women by the end of this Commission, it will provide the incoming Commission with a much firmer and higher base from which to work towards genuine gender balance across the Commission, particularly in managerial roles.
I take the point that the honourable Member made about the single-sex nature of the selection board. It is not in fact a selection board. It is an advisory committee on appointments. The final selection of candidates is made by the portfolio Commissioner, by myself as the Commissioner for Personnel Administration, and the President. The basis on which the selection was made, as I said earlier, involved no criticism of, or disrespect for, the high qualifications of the woman candidate who came before us; it related, as I said, to the fact that the candidate chosen had a profile more particularly suited to the tasks of the post in question. No preference on gender grounds was shown towards a man."@en1
|
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples