By Euro Weekly News Media • Published: 01 Aug 2014 • 10:26
The next President of the EU commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, has warned all countries within the union to produce more female representatives or he will wait before he names the new Executive.
Juncker is requiring that there be an acceptable balance between men and women for the posts and has stated, according to his spokesman, that two or three is not enough. The deadline has now been altered to August 30 to allow for the new set to begin on November 1, although the European Parliament will need to give their approval to the selection of each member country.
The current Executive contains nine women members, but at the moment only three female representatives have been put forward, those being from Slovenia, Czech Republic and Sweden. It would be unacceptable to have less gender equality than the previous group is the opinion of leader of the European Parliament Martin Schulz. In the final hour Juncker asked the 28 member states to name an alternative with at least one being female.
In Brussels they think that it should go further and not just that the Executive should have more women representatives, but more top posts should go to females. He mentioned positions such as President of the European Council and High representative of the Union of Foreign Affairs.
Spain is one such country that has named a male representative for the Executive, Miguel Arias Cañete, and unless problems arise will be sticking with their choice. However, it has been heard from sources close to Mariano Rajoy that two fully capable women have been lined up in case Juncker stands his ground.
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