Gender Parity Pressure Continues After Deadline for EU Commission Nominations Pass
3rd September 2024
The deadline for EU member states to put forward their picks for the next European Commission passed on Sunday with all 27 capitals successfully naming their candidates. The ball is now in President-elect Ursula von der Leyen’s court to divide the portfolios between them as she sees fit before the incoming commissioners stand before the European Parliament for the approval of MEPs.
But von der Leyen has a problem: only nine candidates are women (excluding herself) and 17 are men, something she sees as unacceptable in the current age. In order to reach gender parity, she even asked countries to put forth two names this year—a man’s and a woman’s—for her to mix and match for the best results. However, as commissioner nominations are an exclusive member state competence, all but one country (Bulgaria) ignored this ridiculous (and frankly, undemocratic) request.
When your priority is quotas rather than competence, you’re going to lose.