Women not unified on EU leadership effort?
I’m confused. I’m completely supportive of the idea that at least one of the top positions in the EU should be held by a woman – it’s about time it happened! And as Females in Front, the petition I’ve signed, pointedly asks: with 250 million women in Europe surely one is good enough?
But when it comes to petitions to campaign on the issue it seems that one is absolutely not good enough, as I discovered today via Mary Honeyball MEP’s blog – there’s a rival poll with a similar theme at send2women.eu.
Most strange is that the politician most outspoken on this issue – Margot Wallström – is not listed as a supporter of either initiative. What’s going on here?
OK, thanks for clearing that up! 🙂
Margot is not listed on the send2women website – that’s what caused the confusion.
Hi Jon,
Margot has signed the send2women campaign. The only reason she has not signed the Females in Front one is that it says it will be addressed to the Commission based on the citizens initiative provided for in the Lisbon Treaty. Quite apart from the fact that the question of when or if the Lisbon Treaty will come into force remains open, the Commission is not in a position to do anything with such a petition since appointing people to the posts in question does not fall within its competence.
Margot has also been fully involved in the network of female MEPs which has recently been created.
The European Womens Lobby will launch a campaign on 16 September which Margot fully endorses and she will speak at the launch. This campaign is endorsed by a large number of prominent politicians and others, including Yves Leterne, Simone Veil, Mary Robinson and many more.
See http://www.5050democracy.eu (active from 16 September) for full details.
best
There might be a sensible explanation for it, but I’m yet to find one…
That is the kind of political stupidity that will never bring us closer to the goal of a more equal representation…
Do people in the European Parliament communicate with each other?