Policy Focus

Ferrero-Waldner: EU women's envoy must have real impact

The fight for women’s rights should not be limited to an EU women’s envoy but should be an inherent part of every aspect of the institutions’ work, EU external relations chief Benita Ferrero-Waldner has said.

In an exclusive article in the latest issue of the Parliament Magazine, Ferrero-Waldner writes, “The creation of a possible women’s envoy is clearly worth serious consideration. But this must not give those who don’t want to incorporate gender into their work an easy opt-out, taking a ‘there’s a Mrs or Mr Women’s Rights, so we don’t need to bother’ attitude.

“We have to have the kind of institutional setup necessary to enable the envoy to have a real impact across the spectrum of EU policy areas.”

The EU currently has 11 special representatives posted in trouble spots around the world, all of which are appointed by the council – but none are women. For Ferrero-Waldner, this is unacceptable.

“The 11 EU special representatives promoting EU interests in troubled areas of the world are all men. Why? This need not be so.”

Ferrero-Waldner’s comments also come in the wake of the launch of several appeals to get more women into the EU’s top posts –including the 50/50 campaign by the EU women’s lobby and the send2women petition led by a number of MEPs.

On 14 October, the Greens/EFA group held a conference in parliament to garner support for an EU women’s representative, someone to coordinate women’s issues across policy areas, and especially to step up action on achieving the Millennium Development Goals.

For Ferrero-Waldner, getting more women into the commission’s delegations across the world is another key move that she thinks will spearhead a more concerted effort to change the status quo.

“Of course, at the commission we must multiply our efforts to get more women into key positions, for example, as heads of delegation. The current situation, in which we have only seven women out of 91 as heads of delegations, is obviously far from satisfactory.

The problem remains, however, that despite redoubling efforts and implementing positive discrimination in the way the EU recruits, some women will still be unable to reach their full potential.

“The problem, unfortunately,” says the Austrian commissioner, “Is that women often have to do more to climb the career ladder and sometimes they do not even try or dare to do it. They still have to break through the glass ceiling.”