BRUSSELS — At first glance, the European Union may seem like a paragon of gender equality — what with Ursula von der Leyen heading the all-important executive branch. Still, all the talk this week is about an excess of men poised for top positions at the EU headquarters.
Not that von der Leyen, the first woman to hold the position as European Commission president, would want anything other than full gender parity in the body that runs the day-to-day business of the world’s biggest trading bloc of 450 million people.
“One of its key objectives is achieving gender balance in decision-making,” the strategy of von der Leyen’s outgoing European Commission boldly proclaimed. Her office was “committed to lead by example, with the first female Commission president selected in 2019, and the first gender-balanced College of Commissioners during this time.”
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 other nations and continents in its wake where the dominance of men in political institutions is still the order of the day.
So it makes it especially galling for von der Leyen, who is setting up the team for her second five-year mandate, that her hands are tied and she can’t independently pick her commissioners. In her first five-year term, there was near gender parity among EU commissioners.
In her offices overlooking the Brussels skyline, she sometimes holds court underneath a massive picture of the founding fathers of the current-day EU meeting in Rome in 1957 — they’re men as far as the camera lens could see.
Until the late 1980s, it remained an exclusive boy’s club before women shattered the institutional ceiling.
But von der Leyen is beholden to the EU’s complicated rules that allow every member nation to put forward a commissioner. And while von der Leyen asked them to field a male and female candidate to make her job picking the right politician for each portfolio easier, all too many member states have flat out ignored her since they have the law, if not politics, on their side.
Often, the pick depends on strictly national politics that gives one party the right one year, and another the right the next time. If not governments, parliaments can also get involved — making life even more difficult. The quality of available people also matters. And nations can also ignore her for whatever whim or reason.
There are member states like Ireland that say they have used their full rights to put the best person forward. In Ireland’s case, a man — namely their finance minister, Michael McGrath.
“We’ve put forward a very high caliber nominee, that’s to me is the most important criterion,” said Irish Foreign Minister Micheál Martin.
Von der Leyen at first started out with 21 men on the list, which would make for a male dominated European Commission — the extent of which has not been seen in more than two decades — and she has been working to get that figure down.
The EU, on the other hand, will have women as president of the European Parliament — Roberta Metsola of Malta — and as foreign policy chief — Kaja Kallas from Estonia.
“The president has been very clear in what her ambition is, which is a gender balance college,” European Commission spokesperson Arianna Podesta said. “She is doing everything in her powers to have a gender-balanced college for the next mandate. She is, of course, in constant touch with the leaders of all member states.”
And late Monday, she got some good news from the last holdout nation, Belgium. It ditched outgoing Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders, who was bent on returning, and picked Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib to bring the balance to a potential 17-10.
Once von der Leyen completes the mix and match of political group, nation and post, the full list goes to the European Parliament where 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.