12/03/2008: In their meeting in Strasbourg this week, centre-right EPP-ED women MEPs voiced their support for using competence as the main criterion to find candidates for EU top jobs next year. Rather than using gender as the only criterion, as suggested by some women members of the Liberal Group, the EPP-ED Members of the European Parliament called for Member States to propose competent female candidates for the coveted posts, underlining at the same time their opposition to formal quotas.
"Quotas are not the right way to promote true equality of opportunities", commented Edit Bauer, EPP-ED Vice-Coordinator for the Committee of Women's Rights and Gender Equality. She also thanked the current Commission for putting forward the recommendation in 2004 for Member States to nominate more competent women as candidates. "I think that this type of suggestion can be a useful tool to improve gender balance in the EU institutions", she said.
Gender should neither be seen as a requirement of nor an obstacle to filling EU top jobs. "The most essential element of equality at work is the content - rather than mere gender", stated Piia-Noora Kauppi, Head of the Finnish Delegation in the EPP-ED Group. "The substance of the decisions should always be more important than the gender of the decision-maker", said MEP Marie Panayotopoulos-Cassiotou, one of the gender policy experts of the Greek EPP-ED Delegation.
The European Parliament has created excellent legislation favouring gender equality in Europe since its inception fifty years ago. "This proves that competent men are as important as competent women in achieving a society of equal opportunities for all", commented Christa Klass, a prominent MEP from the German CDU Delegation.
Further information:
Edit Bauer MEP, tel: +33 3 88175673
Piia-Noora Kauppi MEP, tel: +33 3 88175894
Marie Panayotopoulos-Cassiotou, MEP, tel: +33 3 88175447
Christa Klass MEP, tel: +33 3 88175313
Antti Timonen, EPP-ED Press Service, tel: +32 474851831
"Quotas are not the right way to promote true equality of opportunities", commented Edit Bauer, EPP-ED Vice-Coordinator for the Committee of Women's Rights and Gender Equality. She also thanked the current Commission for putting forward the recommendation in 2004 for Member States to nominate more competent women as candidates. "I think that this type of suggestion can be a useful tool to improve gender balance in the EU institutions", she said.
Gender should neither be seen as a requirement of nor an obstacle to filling EU top jobs. "The most essential element of equality at work is the content - rather than mere gender", stated Piia-Noora Kauppi, Head of the Finnish Delegation in the EPP-ED Group. "The substance of the decisions should always be more important than the gender of the decision-maker", said MEP Marie Panayotopoulos-Cassiotou, one of the gender policy experts of the Greek EPP-ED Delegation.
The European Parliament has created excellent legislation favouring gender equality in Europe since its inception fifty years ago. "This proves that competent men are as important as competent women in achieving a society of equal opportunities for all", commented Christa Klass, a prominent MEP from the German CDU Delegation.
Further information:
Edit Bauer MEP, tel: +33 3 88175673
Piia-Noora Kauppi MEP, tel: +33 3 88175894
Marie Panayotopoulos-Cassiotou, MEP, tel: +33 3 88175447
Christa Klass MEP, tel: +33 3 88175313
Antti Timonen, EPP-ED Press Service, tel: +32 474851831
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