| 'The fight goes on' – the EU's only woman president Mercedes Bresso marks International Women's Day with a new call for change |
The number of women in public office at local and regional level across Europe is still far short of parity with men and more needs to be done to ensure a more equitable representation of both genders at every level of governance, Mercedes Bresso, president of the Committee of the Regions, said on International Women's Day on 8 March. "That I am the first woman to be elected Committee of the Regions president is, I believe, proof that the CoR has started to achieve normality. The real anomaly is, however, the fact that I am currently the only woman president of a European Union institution. I hope that my election will help to correct this anomaly to some extent. I hope that it might serve to encourage the women ofBresso stressed that the CoR still had some way to go before it became truly representative. "My election as president should be just the start of the process of change at the CoR. Of our four political group leaders, just one is a woman, while only two of the six thematic commissions at the CoR have elected women as presidents or vice-presidents. Perhaps this is not surprising when just 23% of the 344 members of the CoR are women. "We are rightly proud at the CoR of our role as the directly elected representatives of European citizens, but if we really want to be representative of everyone, we need more women members. Some of our national delegations have advanced – the The situation at the CoR is by no means unique: statistics collected by the Council of Europe, based on 2008, figures show that women are still significantly under-represented at all regional and local government levels. On average, just 21% of the elected members of regional parliaments across |
| Visit the CoR's website: www.cor.europa.eu The Committee of the Regions The Committee of the Regions is the EU's assembly of regional and local representatives. The mission of its 344 members from all 27 EU Member States is to involve regional and local authorities and the communities they represent in the EU's decision-making process and to inform them about EU policies. The European Commission, the European Parliament and the Council are obliged to consult the Committee in policy areas affecting regions and cities. It can appeal to the EU Court of Justice if its rights are infringed or it believes that an EU law violates the subsidiarity principle or fails to respect regional or local powers. |
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EU's enige vrouwelijke presidente Mercedes Bresso pleit op de internationale vrouwen dag voor verandering
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