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viernes, 20 de julio de 2012

Consejos y cuota femenina


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