Today, July 8, the plenary of the European Parliament voted on Francois-Louis Michaud as a candidate for the position of Executive Director of the European Banking Authority (EBA). Michaud was approved with 343 votes in favour, 296 against and 56 abstentions. Greens voted against both on committee and plenary level, because the EBA had presented a shortlist of only one male candidate. In a resolution of March 2019, the Parliament had demanded gender-balanced shortlists for top positions in financial institutions of at least one man and one woman. At committee level, Michaud had been rejected on July 3 by a narrow majority (24 no, 23 yes, 10 abstentions) due to the lack of gender balance. The vote in the responsible committee served as a recommendation for the final vote in plenary. The previous candidate, Gerry Cross, was rejected by the European Parliament because of extensive lobbying activities in the past.<\/p>\n
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