Tomo el texto de
una reciente intervención de la Comisaria Viviane Reding para completar
anteriores entradas sobre este tema. En su reciente discurso titulado "The Tug-of-War over the Women
Quota", la Comisaria realizó un balance
de la situación y confirmó los próximos pasos tendentes a fomentar una mayor
presencia femenina en los Consejo de las
grandes sociedades europeas.
El pasado se simplifica en el fiasco de la
autorregulación y en la preparación de medidas normativas inminentes. De ello
se ha informado en este blog. Como resumen tomo las palabras de la Comisaria:
“First, I encouraged companies to self-regulate and gave them time to prove that they are serious about
bringing more women onto their boards. In March 2011, I urged listed companies
to sign a voluntary commitment called the "Women on Boards Pledge for
Europe". Only 24 companies signed this pledge. Clearly, self-regulation
did not bring about a significant improvement.
In a second stage, I wanted to hear the views of
stakeholders, businesses, Member States and citizens. On 5 March the European
Commission launched a public consultation that lasted until the end of May.
The number of received responses, shows the great
interest in this matter: the Commission received responses from almost 500
individuals, companies, organisations and governments from all over Europe most
of them coming from Germany. We are now analysing all the responses and
preparing an economic analysis before tabling a proposal before the end of the
year. This will be the Commission's contribution to improving the gender
balance on company boards in Europe”.
La solución que se anuncia –más bien, se confirma- es
normativa y tendrá por objeto la
determinación de la “cuota europea”.
Una normativa que tiene que respetar determinados principios que se apuntan en
la intervención que comento:
“When drafting a legal instrument on a "European quota", it is
clear that we must not discriminate against individual candidates competing for
a particular position in a company. It is therefore of key importance that
Article 23 of our EU Charter of Fundamental Rights explicitly says that
specific measures in favour of the under- represented gender are legally
possible – but, only if there is under-representation. Thus by definition, quota
rules must be limited in time, otherwise they would lead to further inequality.
Whatever I will propose, qualification and merit will remain the key
criteria for a job on the board.
The Commission is currently assessing ways in which we
can best balance the fundamental right of gender equality with the freedom to
conduct a business. My personal view has always been that an EU quota rule
should be focused on the members of the supervisory boards of companies, or to
the non-executive board members in one- tier company structures. You will see
the result of our assessment in the legal instrument which the Commission will
propose before the end of this year.
The quota might - I say "might"! – be a
necessary tool to break the glass ceiling and provide the most qualified
candidates with the opportunity to succeed”.
La cuota femenina en los Consejos será polémica. Más allá
de ello, me permito subrayar que estamos ante otro ejemplo en el que el
gobierno corporativo basado en la autorregulación no cumple los objetivos
esperados, terminando la cuestión siendo objeto de determinación normativa.
Madrid, 20 de julio de 2012
