Commission fails to meet female recruitment targets

The European Commission has adopted new legislation to promote the recruitment of women in each of its departments, in anticipation of a second year of failing to meet certain annual targets.

The Commission had promised to adopt measures if 2006 figures again fell short of set targets. These figures are due to be released this month, but the Commission has already announced compulsory measures for its departments on 8 March, International Women’s Day. This suggests that the 2006 figures will be disappointing.

The Commission set three targets for recruiting and appointing women in 2006, at senior management, middle management and non-managerial positions. For senior appointments, posts such as director, assistant director-general and director-general, the 2006 target was 25%. Preliminary data collated at the end of October 2006 show that the target had not been met, with women representing only 19% of the staff recruited at senior level.

In 2005, the Commission exceeded the 20% target set for this management level. Women represented 32.8 % of appointments or recruitments. This marked significant progress compared with 2004 (12.8%). But the Commission points out that it was mainly as a result of appointments made because of the enlargement of the EU.

At middle management level, the 2006 target for the recruitment of women was 30%. At the end of October 2006, only 24.1% had been appointed to this level.

The same target of 30% was set in 2005. Although the rate of appointment in this sector was 1.4% up on 2004, the Commission fell short of the target, achieving 24.4%. The Commission says that the number of applications from female candidates was rather low. This failure led to the Commission stipulating that it would enforce binding measures on all its departments if appointments fell short of the target again in 2006.

The 2006 and 2005 targets for the recruitments of women at a non-managerial level were both set at 50%. A rate of 51.4% was achieved in 2005, compared with 44% in 2004. At the end of October 2006, only 41.9% women had been appointed.

A significant improvement in the final figures for 2006 is not expected. A spokesperson for the Commission’s administration department says that the figures to be released later this month will "remain quite similar" to those collated last October.

According to the spokesperson, a variety of factors have contributed to departments falling short of the targets. These range from the number of successful women applicants in the Commission’s entrance examinations to the selection procedures employed at individual departments.

The Commission has also admitted that obstacles in the departments themselves include "the slow change in mentalities, a larger workload and more generally, a culture of longer working hours, the fact that the issue is still a low priority for many departments, limited human and financial resources due to the difficult budgetary situation and insufficient attention paid systematically to the gender dimension of all aspects of human resources".

In order to improve on internal procedures, as of last month, Commission departments are being obliged to implement five measures. If the previous year’s middle management recruitment target has not been met, each department must report on the reasons why this has occurred. All departments must designate a permanent equal opportunities rapporteur on selection panels for middle management recruitment. Both men and women must be represented on candidate selection panels at all levels, consisting of four members or more. In addition, selection panels must justify the absence of women from shortlisted candidates when there has been a pool of women candidates applying.

All Commission managers will also have to attend compulsory training on ensuring equal opportunities in their domain, by 2009.

According to a spokesperson, the departments of employment and social affairs, information society and regional development are also investigating the need to employ a more pro-active approach. This include opting for women candidates when two candidates of equal calibre are chosen to be shortlisted and career coaching for their female managers. The Commission expects reports on all these measures in 2008.

• Saffina Rana is a freelance journalist based in Brussels.

The European Commission has adopted new legislation to promote the recruitment of women in each of its departments, in anticipation of a second year of failing to meet certain annual targets.