It appears that Manuel Barroso's attempts to form a new fairly gender neutral European Commision for the period 2010 to the end of 2014 has got of to a calamitous start. President Barroso explicitly asked the 27 Mmeber States to nominate more women as one of the 27 Commissioners in his new Commission.
In the current Commission , there are 8 Commissioners out of a total of 27 (less than a third) and the current Vice-President of the Commission, Margot Wallstrom, has gone on the record calling for an increase of women being nominated for top jobs in international organisations.
However, so far only five Member States have nominated a candidate to be a Commissioner and all five candidates are male. Gunter Oettinger, from Germany, Maros Sefcovic from Slovakia, Johannes Hahn from Austria, Laszlo Andor from Hungary and Stefan Fule from the Czech Republic. It appears also that Michel Barnier from France is a shoe-in as the French nominee.
Six men nominated by six Member States is a worrying start to the nomination process. The stupid thing is that as Member States battle it out to get their 'guy' an impressive and important potfolio in the new Commission, it is those Member states who nominate a woman as a Commissioner who are going to have a head start if present trends in nominations continue.
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