BRUSSELS, 4 Sep (AP) \u2014 European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen said Wednesday she is doubling down and pushing full steam ahead to achieve gender parity in her executive Commission team that runs the day-to-day affairs of the massive bloc \u2014 despite stubborn resistance from some of the 27 member states.<\/p>\n
The German, who is setting up the college for her second five-year mandate, may be beholden to the candidates that each member state chooses to provide.<\/p>\n
But she has been twisting arms in capitals to make sure that the original tally of 21 men and 6 women changes to at least a semblance of balance. In her first term, she achieved near gender parity among EU commissioners.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have throughout my whole political life been fighting for women having access to decision-making positions and leading positions,\u201d von der Leyen told reporters. \u201cMy experience is that if you don\u2019t ask for it, you don\u2019t get it. It does not come naturally.\u201d<\/p>\n
She sent the member states a letter insisting she should have a choice between at least one man and a woman, giving her some leverage though legally she has no right to insist on such a gender constraint.<\/p>\n
Without the letter, she said she would have faced a fait accompli of having the most lopsided male-dominated Commission in over two decades. Now, at least she is continuing the fight.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is absolutely worth it. The process is ongoing. By now we are at two digits \u2014 women \u2014 but I haven\u2019t seen all potential candidates, she said.<\/p>\n
When it comes to gender issues, the 27-nation EU is often seen as perhaps the most progressive grouping of countries in the world, leaving behind other nations and continents where the dominance of men in political institutions is still the order of the day.<\/p>\n
She acknowledged that government leaders are often restricted in their choice by national politics giving one party the right one year, and another the next time. If not governments, parliaments can also get involved \u2014 making life even more difficult.<\/p>\n
And quality is equally important, she said. \u201cThe Commission needs competence,\u201d she said, calling it \u201cthe first and most important criterion.\u201d<\/p>\n
So far though, the EU will have several women \u2014 there is the president of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola of Malta, and foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas from Estonia, along with von der Leyen\u2019s top posting.<\/p>\n
Once von der Leyen completes the mix and match of political group, nation and post, the full list goes to the European Parliament for approval. Each prospective commissioner can still be rejected by lawmakers. There is no set date for when a vote will happen, but debate will continue for most of September.<\/p>\n
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BRUSSELS, 4 Sep (AP) \u2014 European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen said Wednesday she is doubling down and pushing full steam ahead to achieve gender parity in her executive Commission team that runs the day-to-day affairs of the massive bloc \u2014 despite stubborn resistance from some of the 27 member states. The German, who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-247832","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247832"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247832\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}