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Posts Tagged European Parliament

Wanted: more burdz for business

Jul 9

Posted by The Burd in Economy, Europe, Society | 22 Comments

From recent events, you might think my timing is awry.  But we need more women in business.

Because more women means fewer Rebekah Brooks.

This week, the European Parliament voted in support of quotas for women in business and if voluntary measures do not work, for EU legislation to be used.

Currently, women make up 10% of directors and only 3% of CEOs at the largest listed EU companies.  Progress is painfully slow, only half a percent per year.  At this rate, the European Parliament predicted that it would take another fifty years for women to have at least 40% of seats in the biggest boardrooms.

Scotland is no better.  A recent survey for the Herald found that there are only 29 female directors in the 30 largest listed companies in Scotland.  Ten have no women directors at all, including major companies like A G Barr (Irn Bru manufacturers), Robert Wiseman dairies, Aggreko, Scottish Investment Trust and the Wood Group.

It is truly depressing stuff, but not nearly as depressing as the views of women who have made it to the top.   Progress has been made in recent years, you need to look at other sectors too, there are more women there in equivalent positions, merit must always come first, and the hoariest chestnut of them all.  That old faithful – women are too busy juggling careers, children and partners (!) to find time for extras like non-executive positions.

But let’s not rehearse the old arguments – and invite the usual comments – of equality and opportunity.  Except briefly to allow the EU Vice President  Rodi Kratsa-Tsagaropoulou, (Christian Democrat MEP from Greece) whose resolution on the report on Women and Business Leadership was adopted by the European Parliament, to comment:

“Europe cannot afford to leave talent untapped! Empowering the role of women on management boards of companies is not only about ethics and equality, it is also essential for economic growth and a competitive internal market. With the adoption of the report on Women and Business Leadership, the European Parliament has sent a strong message to governments, social partners and enterprises in Europe”.

The resolution urges the European Commission to “propose legislation including quotas by 2012 for increasing female representation in corporate management bodies of enterprises to 30% by 2015 and to 40% by 2020”, if voluntary measures do not manage to increase the proportion of women.  The report and debate pointed to the success of similar quota legislation in Norway and welcomed the threshholds already set in France, the Netherlands and Spain.

In the UK too, there have been moves to increase women’s representation in leadership roles voluntarily, through the establishment of the 30% club and in Scotland, the current and soon-to-be chairs of CBI Scotland are women.  Indeed,  the new CBI chief, Nosheena Mobarik OBE, has already called for women to be given more senior roles in Scottish boardrooms.

It’s all good but it’s not enough.  So let’s encourage business to meet these potential quotas voluntarily by focusing on the only arguments that matter to them, the ones that affect the bottom line.

Studies have shown that companies with a higher percentage of women tend to perform better commercially and financially.  Women have just as many skills and as much experience to offer as men.  Indeed, their different experiences and perspectives could help create a much needed cultural shift in the way in which business is approached and conducted.  And there is evidence – cited by David Watt, Director of the Institute of Directors in Scotland – that shows that companies with a diverse and gender balanced boardroom make better progress and have better returns than all-male boards.

So more women directors and in senior leadership positions, more moolah.  For us all.  And if that doesn’t appeal, then I don’t know what might.

Oh this.  More women, fewer Rebekah Brooks.  Because we’ll get more women of better quality, whose morals and ethics are more sound, and with a shift in culture, there will simply be no room for the likes of Brooks who got to the top by playing men at their own game.

 

 

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EXCLUSIVE: Greens urge Italians to vote Si on Sunday against nuclear energy

Jun 8

Posted by The Burd in Environment, Europe | 5 Comments

Green MEPs, Daniel Cohn-Bendit (France) and Rebecca Harms (Germany), today urged the Italian population to vote ‘si’ in Sunday’s referendum on nuclear energy, claiming that a yes vote rejecting nuclear power as an energy option for Italy, would start a “snowball effect” across the rest of Europe.

Cohn-Bendit pointed out that the referendum was the first in Europe on this issue and urged the Italian people to vote in order to give all European citizens a better future.

Harms outlined how a majority of European citizens now opposed nuclear energy – a view that had grown since the Fukishima tragedy in Japan earlier this year.  And she listed all the countries rejecting nuclear power.  It was not only Germany who had recently moved to phase out nuclear power but a whole host of countries had never chosen the nuclear route, including Ireland, Denmark, Austria, Spain, Greece, Portugal, Switzerland and Belgium.

Poland is also due to hold a referendum and France is debating the issue afresh.  With elections due in France, Germany and Italy in the next three years, the Green MEPs argued that we could shortly reach a position where there are three governments “at the heart of Europe” adopting an anti-nuclear stance and that this would send a “strong message” to nations around the world.

The MEPs suggested there were sound fiscal reasons to reject nuclear power.  It would cost Italy at least 700 million Euros to earthquake “proof” any nuclear installations.  Fundamentally, the country’s topological and geological make up made it inherently unsuitable for nuclear power plants.

Moreover, Cohn-Bendit highlighted the “inherent contradiction” at the heart of UK policy on nuclear energy.  Its position of including nuclear power in the mix for future energy provision was predicated on such development being privately funded and not involving public funding.  The Green MEP claimed this was impossible to do.  Experience in Japan showed that even with private investors, public funding was still required and frankly, the UK Government did not have the money to do this in the current financial climate.

While the fiscal issue is a key one, it is also clear that the UK is travelling in the wrong direction on this important issue from its fellow EU members.  The future is bright, it would appear, and it does not include nuclear.

So long as the Italians do indeed vote si on Sunday.

– blogged from the European Parliament in Strasbourg –

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Five random things we learned aujourd’hui

Jun 8

Posted by The Burd in Europe | 9 Comments

Aujourd’hui, as in the day we learned them.  Which was yesterday – or ‘hier’ if you want to be pedantic – seeing as I could only get wifi access this morning.

Anyway, enough already of all this confusing time delay blether.

What are the five random things we learned on our first day in Strasbourg?

1.  The national tree of the Czech Republic is the ‘lipa’.

Or lime tree.  We know this courtesy of the very bright and talented intern working in the EU office in Scotland who is Czech and speaks better English and French than we two.  To our shame.  And we also know this because Strasbourg has lots of  boulevards planted with these trees and they are all in blossom right now.  The scent is magnificent.

Jealous yet?  Good.

2.  The European Parliament Facebook page has over 160,000 followers.

We know this thanks to the Head of Social Media for the European Parliament  – get us huh?! – who kindly gave an hour of his time yesterday to explain how the Parliament is engaging with social media and reaching whole new audiences.  We thought 160,000 followers was pretty impressive …. but they can always use more!

3.  The Parly shop sells newspapers in six languages

We were disappointed it wasn’t more but the clinging to the established languages of the Parliament – French, German and English – continues.  The banks of interpreters and translators has to be seen to be truly appreciative of the scale of this enterprise.  Think about it.  It’s not just English into however many member state languages there are but also all those languages back into English.  Awesome.

Sad to say, you can buy the Daily Mail in Strasbourg.  And before you ask, no we didn’t.

4.  All votes are held in Strasbourg and not Brussels

(This random thing comes from Malc so if it’s wrong, it’s all his fault…)  EDIT – it WAS wrong, and it IS Malc’s fault!).

The European Parliament packs its bags and boxes and literally does transfer en masse to Strasbourg one week out of every four.  And even though it is only here a quarter of the time.  Its mental.

Listen up, MSPs and MPs.  Today’s plenaries start at 9am.  Sharp.  There is the required lunch break at 12 noon – au naturelment – but also committees, press conferences, visits, meetings, delegations etc.  Plenary session is back at 3pm and continues through until about 7pm.  When everyone breaks for receptions, bar chats, then dinner and more work chat.  It’s all pretty intense.

Did I say we were loving it?!

5.  The single communist Czech MEP was the first Czech in space.

If we had asked the lovely Czech intern the right question, we would be able to tell you his name.  And while we thought this was a random interesting thing, apparently he’s not the only kinda celeb MEP.   Rest assured, we are on the hunt for more…..

And some of you might be relieved to know that as well as learning random things, we are also finding out about interesting, important things, which we will of course, be blogging on in due course.

A bientot….

 

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