EU strikes deal to impose 40% quota for women on boards of large companies by 2026

euronews.com:

The European Union has agreed to impose gender quotas to ensure women have at least 40 per cent of seats on the boards of large companies.

After a decade of deadlock on the topic, the proposal got new momentum this year with fresh backing from Germany and France, and a political agreement was finally reached on Tuesday between the European Parliament and the Council of the EU.

The legislation requires listed companies in all 27 EU member states to have women take up at least 40 per cent of non-executive board seats or 33 per cent of all board director roles by mid-2026.

Companies could be fined for failing to hire enough women on their boards and see director appointments cancelled for non-compliance with the law.

"Diversity is not only a matter of fairness. It also drives growth and innovation. The business case for having more women in leadership is clear," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement. "There are plenty of women qualified for top jobs: they should be able to get them”. 

Last year, EU data showed women occupied 30.6 per cent of boardroom positions across the bloc, but this varied widely country by country, with Cyprus having 8.5 per cent of women on boards, and France more than 45 per cent.

France first introduced legal targets for women on boards back in 2011. Its own 40 per cent quota came into force in 2017 and it’s the only EU state to surpass that number today, according to the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE), an EU agency.

Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, Belgium and Germany were the next best in class, with between 36 and 38.8 per cent of women in the boardroom. Lagging well behind are Hungary, Estonia and Cyprus, where fewer than one in 10 non-executive directors