July 5, 2022
The European Union has agreed to impose gender quotas to ensure that women have at least 40% of seats on large company boards.
After a decade of deadlock, the proposal gained new traction this year with new support from Germany and France, and a political agreement was finally reached on Tuesday between the European Parliament and the EU Council.
The legislation requires listed companies in all 27 EU member states to have at least 40% of non-executive board seats or 33% of all board director roles filled by women by mid-2026.
Companies that fail to hire enough women on their boards may face fines and director appointments may be terminated for noncompliance with the law.
Women occupied 30.6 percent of boardroom positions across the EU last year, according to EU data, but this varied greatly by country, with Cyprus having 8.5 percent of women on boards and France having more than 45 percent.
France first established legal targets for female board members in 2011. Its own 40% quota went into effect in 2017, and it is now the only EU state to exceed that figure, according to the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE), an EU agency.
Source: Euronews
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