Sven Giegold

Strong sign against male dominance in EU top finance positions: European Parliament postpones appointments

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The European Commission and the Council have again shortlisted only men for the most recent nominations for top positions in EU financial authorities, despite earlier appeals by the European Parliament for more gender balance. Following last week’s votes in the ECON Committee on the appointment of José Manuel Campa as Chairman of the European Banking Authority (EBA), Sebastiano Lafiola as member of the Single Resolution Board (SRB) and Philip Lane as member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank, our Group has requested that the vote in plenary on these appointments be postponed.

 

The President of the European Parliament wrote a letter to the Council and the Commission earlier this week, which was sent following a decision by the Conference of Presidents on 14 February. In this letter, the EP expresses its concern about the gender imbalance in appointments to EU top positions. We have not yet received a reply to the letter.

 

Now we have achieved the postponement of the vote: the Conference of Presidents decided today to postpone the votes on the new appointments for the SRB and ECB on the basis of a Green initiative if Parliament does not receive a satisfactory reply to its letter to the Council and Commission before next week. This approach was proposed by the Greens and the Liberals and was finally decided by consensus. In addition to the postponement, there will be a plenary debate next Tuesday with a resolution on gender balance in EU economic and monetary institutions. Only the vote for the appointment of the EBA President will take place as planned, otherwise the one-month non-objection period for the European Parliament would simply expire. The new date for the two postponed votes is the second plenary session in March. We will only agree to this, however, if the Council and the Commission have credibly explained by then how they intend to ensure greater gender equality in future appointment procedures.

 

 

MEP Sven Giegold, financial and economic policy spokesperson of the Greens/EFA group commented:

“The postponement of the two appointments is a first signal against male dominance in the EU financial authorities. In the EU financial authorities it is Men’s Day 365 days a year. The EU Commission and the Council must now ensure more equality in these top positions. By postponing the vote, we have achieved a first success for more equality in these top jobs. The Council and the Commission must create genuine gender equality for future appointment procedures. If they do not deliver, we will continue to block the votes on the two appointments beyond the second plenary week in March.”

 

Link to the letter from the Greens/EFA Group to President Tajani:

https://sven-giegold.de/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/190304-letter-President-Tajani.pdf

 

Links to letters from President Tajani to Council and Commission:

https://sven-giegold.de/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Letter-to-Commission.pdf

https://sven-giegold.de/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Letter-to-Council.pdf

 

Link to the planned final report of the ECON Committee on the appointment of a member of the ECB’s Executive Board:

https://sven-giegold.de/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/ECB-executive-board-member.docx

 

Link to the planned final report of the ECON Committee on the appointment of the EBA Chair:

https://sven-giegold.de/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/EBA-Chairperson.docx

 

Link to the planned final report by the ECON Committee on the appointment of a member of the Single Resolution Board:

https://sven-giegold.de/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/SRB-member.docx

 

 

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