The women who run the Commission

Award-winning journalist-blogger Prune Antoine - who had the guts to show up in jeans for her award ceremony at the Quai d'Orsay (yeah!!!) - is publishing a wonderful series of interviews with female EU Commissioners on her blog.

So far, Connie Hedegaard, Maria Damanaki, Neeli Kroes, Máire Geoghegan and Viviane Reding have answered the same questions about how "macho" they find the EU institutions, how the fact that they are women influences their work and how they would like to change the EU.

If you haven't read the interviews yet - now is the time!

Picture: © european_parliament / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

20 women who run the EU (blogosphere) - updated

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Update: This blog post on the female euroblogosphere has been taken up by EuroparlTV.

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In the German blogosphere, we have recently seen a controversial debate (started by annalist) about the question why only men were among the so-called "alpha bloggers" in a video series about important bloggers, a debate that has led to the inclusion of female bloggers in the third part of the series (see the comment of the feminist blog Maedchenmannschaft).

It is much easier to find brilliant women in the political Euroblogosphere, a blogosphere that is still developing but that has definitely left its infancy over the past year. Female bloggers are an integral part of this blogosphere, and here I'd like to present 20 of them.

Inside the institutions, Cecilia Malmström has taken the place of Margot Wallström as the blogging Commissioner. And in the London representation of the Commission, public relations official Antonia Mochan is Talking about the EU. Another EU official, Halmai Katalin who is a press officer at the European Parliament, is blogging in Hungarian at Európában. And even within the member states, civil servants like Jo from Bitmorecomplicate have an eye on Europe.

Surprisingly, there are not so many good MEP and Europarty blogs, and even fewer written written by women. One of the few female MEPs blogging regularly is socialist MEP Corina Cretu. There are some more, but most are not very regular and with strong tendencies towards press release-like texts. But with political activist Eurosocialiste (who writes in English and French) there is a clearly affiliated woman who has shown the way and set standards since the European Parliament election campaign.

Another group of female bloggers are the journalist bloggers and bloggers on journalistic platforms. There are decorated Spanish euroblogger Macarena Ruiz Garcia from La Oreja de Europa, Honor Mahony who is looking Behind the Scenes at the news platform EUobserver or Romanian journalist Anne-Marie Blajan with her frequent and insightful posts at Menaru. In that category, we also shouldn't forget French blogger Prune of L'Europe en Blogs whose laconic comments on European politics and the euroblogosphere are among the best you can get. And you also don't want to miss out the two Danish voices from Rikke Brøndum and Anne Albinus.

Then there is another gang of professionals in the Brussels arena that is worth mentioning - the public affairs consultants, lobbyists and PR professionals. Lobbyist Caroline De Cock is the blue rhino making us laugh and think at the Lobbyplanet. Public Affairs consultant Kattebel just started her blog after realising that Twitter is not enough to say everything that needs to be said. Social media consultant Antonella Napolitano writing in Italian at Vassar Storie(s) and has recently joined the PDF Europe team. And scientific consultant Eva Peña is Eva en Europa, contributing with well-thought posts to the debates in the euroblogosphere.

And last but not least there is the academia. There are the students Alex Athanasopoulou of Europeanization and the very active Mia Välimäki of Cosmetic Uprise. European Law expert Magdalena Tulibacka of ECJ Watch shines with analyses of judgements of the European Court of Justice. And hopefully the newly started blog European Polis by EU affairs scholar Stefanie Sifft who has already contributed on the European Citizen Initiative on the most important German blog netzpolitik.org will continue euroblogging and become part of the family from now on.

I suppose I have forgotten some of the female bloggers. (Sorry!!) I suppose I don't even know some of those existing. There are also a number of women contributing on multi-author blogs that are not listed here. But all this only proves the point that a video series on important eurobloggers could not ignore those women who run the EU.

And to be honest: I wouldn't want to miss them. Because they are great, impressive, and fascinating. If they were the only eurobloggers, the euroblogosphere would still be a great place to be - and so I thank you for blogging!

PS.: When I saw Linda's comment, I knew I had missed one of the longest running euroblogs written by a women - EU for US. Since I am sure I have missed several others, don't hesitate to add them in the comments, that would be a good opportunity to get a more comprehensive list than the 20 I had assembled in the initial post.

Update (22 April): In the meantime, there are more must-read euroblogs written by women, like the political science blog by Jaanika Erne or the blog by written by EU Commissioner Georgieva.

Gender balance & "Females in Front"

There is quite a lot going on around the campaign for a "Gender Balanced Commission" that started just yesterday - including a mentioning of the campaign on European Voice.

We finally get to a point where this issue is not just something for the "feminists", we are arriving at the point where even national news start to recogise the topic (right now it's on the top of the front webpage of the Austrian newspaper "Die Presse" and the campaign is mentioned by El Pais).

I am really glad seeing this, in particular since the issue of gender balance has been one of the guiding lines of this blog. I just looked back and found that my fourth post ever, 1 1/2 years ago, was on "Females in Front", an initiative that demanded that at least one of the three top EU posts would be for a woman and that has almost 200,000 signatories by now.

In two or three days we will know whether this initiative had any success, whether following up was worth the time, or whether the political and social struggle will have to continue - maybe through a rejection of the proposed Commission college in the near future.

On thing is clear for me:

We - men and women - need to stick to this matter, we need to keep it on the agenda until the moment when European leaders will recognise that gender balance as a policy issue has left the back rooms and has become a priority issue for more than just the hard core, an issue strong enough for a campaign like this and strong enough for the European Parliament to act decisively...

A European Blog Action against a Commission without gender balance (UPDATED)

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UPDATE: This post has become reality with the Campaign For A Gender Balanced Commission!

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Dear fellow bloggers,

in case Barroso proposes a Commission with less women than in the last one, we should call for a European Blog Action addressing as many MEPs as possible asking to reject the proposed Commission.

This is not just about gender balance within the college, this is about the credibility of EU policies in promoting gender equality and anti-discrimination in general. This matter is thus also about the credibility of the EU as a whole, and the former is as important to me as the latter.

We could already start with this European Blog Action as soon as it would be clear that non of the top posts - Commission President, European Council President, and "Foreign Minister" (the High Representative) - would be a woman, since rejecting the Commission also means rejecting the High Representative.

Anyone ready to join?

Julien

PS.: This post is encouraged by the latest bad news in the media, but also by this interview Macarena did with Commissioner Wallström.

Will Tarja Halonen become European Council President?

While other sources still search the European Council President on the male side of life, let's follow Jerzy Buzek's proposal and look again at the feminine Europe.

She is number 68 on the Forbes list of the most powerful women in the world, but she is hardly known to a wider public.

Having held three different ministerial posts from 1987-91, being minister for foreign affairs from 1995-2000 (including the Finnish EU Council Presidency in 1999) and being president of Finland since 2000 (including the Finnish EU-Council Presidency in 2006), she has more national and European executive experience than any other women on the continent.

She is a member of the Council of Women World Leaders (CWWL) and was convenor of the International Women Colloquium on Women's Empowerment earlier this year where she became the new president of the CWWL - following Mary Robinson...

So Harja Talonen is a powerful woman with a lot of high level experience and excellent international contacts. She comes from a northern European state and she is a Social Democrat who managed to be in office without creating noise around the continent, which speaks in favour of more diplomatic qualities.

If you add these together, she would not only qualify for the job of European Council President who will need to moderate between the EU's heads of state and government, she also unites a number of demographic and political properties (female, from the north, social democrat) that could well fit the complex equilibrium of the post distribution that we are going to see due to this special declaration to the Lisbon Treaty.

So my bets are on Ms Halonen - and if she won't become European Council President, her profile also fits the Foreign Minister post...

Update: Read also eurosocialist's article "Woman @ EU top: let’s enter the 21st century now!"

Mrs. Robinson, women, and the low profile of the European Council President

A name of woman appears on the media sky, a former president and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights - Mary Robinson - and this name becomes connected to the future President of the European Council. But mind the gap!



There is a Facebook group in her support. Her name appears in blog posts: here, here, here, here, here, here, here or here. Simon & Garfunkel have already written a song for her campaign.

And you know that I am in favour of gender equality and powerful women, that I read the Lisbon Treaty in a way that one woman has to get one of the top EU jobs.

However, I am against women in symbolic positions for the sake of the symbol - I want them in powerful positions for the sake of change!

So if you carefully read the EurActiv article on the pro-Robinson campaign you will find the following lines:

"Instead, Warsaw foresees the new president as a secretary general-type figure who will chair EU summits and coordinate the daily work of the Council, without taking any strategic decisions.

According to European Commission sources, Spain and other EU countries are also interested in the idea of the Council president being more of a low-key organiser, and could back Poland in its motion."

One of the rumours I have heard in Brussels last week was indeed that the Council is working on a job profile or terms of reference for the European Council President, which is confirmed by the Polish announcement. And what is said about the possible profile of the post sounds rather low-key.

In fact, my own interpretation of the Treaty is that the new "Foreign Minister" will be much more important in daily work than the European Council President (see for example my tweets here, here, and here).

This is not least because the European Council just meets four times a year and having in mind that its president will only have a small secretariat that will look tiny in comparison to the large diplomatic service of the foreign minister - who will participate in Commission, EU Foreign Affairs Council, and European Council meetings and will thus have direct influence in three major EU institutions.

I thus fear that those pushing for Mary Robinson as European Council President are not doing her and us a favour.

In the end she might get what women are used to get: Positions where they don't hurt the old male elites, where they can play around, get some media attention, but where they are not supposed to induce major changes.

But I know that now that the campaign is running, there might be no way to stop or change it (not to mention that it is absolutely unclear how her real chances are) - that's how life goes.

So I'd just say: Anyone rallying behind Mrs. Robinson should be aware that in the end the very skilful European male politicians will manage to make their favourite man EU Foreign Minister (who is also Commission Vice-President) and create a largely worthless position of the European Council President, which may then be filled by a woman.

French finance minister praises EU co-operation in Jon Stewart's Daily Show

In an excellent English, and with true conviction, the French finance minister Christine Lagarde yesterday praised EU work and co-operation in the times of the economic crisis in the US-American comedy news "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart".

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	M - Th 11p / 10c
Christine Lagarde
thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Economic Crisis Political Humor

This is excellent ambassadorship for the European Union, not like some of her UMP colleagues!

Shocking: Only old white men can be EU Commission President

Have been taking a look at the Commission's website, hoping to discover something interesting.

All I found is this shocking collection of pictures of old men.

Yes, the Commission is on of the promoters of equality on this continent, but it's presidents have been nothing but old white men. And there is no sign that this will change.

Shocking, isn't it!?

(By the way, Commission PR people: This "finding" is also a sign that the Commission website did not have anything interesting to offer so that I had to come across these old white men in the end.)

European Parliament elections 2009 (73): What MEPs face before becoming MEPs

Franziska "Ska" Keller is a young German woman, member of the Green party, and number 7 of the Green Party list for the 2009 EP elections - a place that, with very high probability, will make her become MEP from July.

In her blog she is writing about the problems that an almost secure Member of the European Parliament is facing ahead of her/his entry into office - and appeals to women to apply for EP jobs (own translation):

Staffing decision. MEPs have funds for about three staff members at their disposal, two of them usually working in Brussels and one in the regional office in the boonies. These positions don't need to be advertised. I therefore can hire according to my wishes: only Green Youth; all young women; preferably with an immigration background; only people from Brandenburg [this is the region 'Ska' is coming from], or whatsoever. As always, the mixture will be important: Somebody with EP experience, somebody who knows about my topics (although it will be unclear until June/July whether I will get my preferred committee or if I have to go to the one on Fisheries (whereas this one is important and thrilling!)), speaks Turkish, is green and left-wing etc. Not very easy! In particular because you need to get along well, you should know each other for a while already, etc. How am I handling this? I think about people around me, I am asking these people for ideas, I look around to see who walk about in my field of expertise - and check my mail.

For some time already I get mails from people who can imagine working for me and who tell this to me. What is stunning: They are all men. First of all this runs against my principle that women should take over at least the majority (and the power) in my office (sorry guys) and second it makes me think about why I don't get applications from women. Apparently it is more natural for men to apply for a job at candidate number 7, a job that is nowhere advertised. Maybe women prefer to wait for me to get the idea to contact them. But this doesn't work if I don't know how great they are and that they are looking for a job! Therefore: Women, apply for a job! Not only with me, but also with other candidates! Others are doing this, too, an a little push à la "Hey, I am also here!" wouldn't be amiss. Hence, do it, it is not presumptuous but necessary.

Very interesting insights, and very open words.

And although I am not a fan of quotas, I appreciate any move to improve gender balance and participation of women in the political sphere, not only in Brussels but all over the place.

I'd therefore like to hear similar appeals from man, too!!

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Under the category "European parliament elections 2009" I am following up national and European activities on the path to the European Parliament elections 2009.

For an overview over all articles in this category have a look at the overview article.

For the five newest post see also the sidebar.

Vladimir Putin in the eyes of woman: A bumpkin

Okay, in her article for the Berlin-based newspaper Der Tagesspiegel, journalist Tissy Bruns does not call Vladimir Putin a "bumpkin".

Instead she writes about Putin (own translation):

These days, the TV allows us to throw a glance at a Russian Prime Minister who acts in public as if he has never had a mother telling him how to behave in the presence of women.

In other words: The way Putin acts is the typical standard male behaviour, showing off his maleness, his power, his ignorance of women as equal partners.

Bruns continues comparing Putin's behaviour towards Angela Merkel with the behaviour of other very male leaders:

Between Putin on one side, and Bush, Schroeder, Sarkozy on the other, there is a subtle distinction which Western democracies require from their politicians while a guided democracy à la Russia doesn't. [...] What makes this subtle distinction? In the democratic public space, women hold power; in Russia they don't.

I think this is largely optimistic when it comes to the role of women in Western democracies, but I would not object to the interpretation when it comes to Putin's behaviour.

A female Obama for Europe!

You are looking for a female Obama? You are looking for her on the European continent?

What about Rama Yade?!

Tracking: European parliament elections 2009 (XIX)

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If you are looking for broader and up-to-date information on the 2009 EP elections, I recommend starting with my Overview article covering all my articles on the 2009 European parliamentary elections between July 2008 and the day you have come to this article.
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The Czech Prime Minister has proposed to form a (eurosceptical) conservative faction within the European Parliament after the 2009 elections. It sounds like, for him, the European Peoples Party (EPP) is not critical enough towards the European Union - but I have doubts that his proposal (i.e. to merge with the British Conservatives in one faction) will be realised.

The Centre for the Advancement of Women in Politics argues that more female candidates for the European Parliament elections would raise the interest of women in the process.

Maybe more effecient will be the merger of elections dates. The United Kingdom, like Ireland, will probably have local and European elections on the same day. The only problem can be that this will lead to a mixture of European and local issues during the campaigns, which could lead to the effect that one of the sides will receive considerably less attention - by the media and thereby by the citizens.

In order to raise participation, British liberal democrat Andrew Duff is proposing to lower the voting age for the EP elections to 16 years for the next vote in 2014. However, looking at the recent Eurobarometer report, it seems to me that the effect could be marginal given the lower interest rate of youngsters in the election process. Duff also puts forward transnational party lists, an issue I don't see much agreement on in today's state of the European Union.

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Under the category "Tracking: European parliament elections 2009" I am following up national and European activities on the path to the European Parliament elections 2009.

For an overview over all articles in this category have look at the overview article.

For the five newest post see also the sidebar.

Powerful women (III): Benita Ferrero-Waldner

Mostly in the shadow of Mr Solana, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the European Commissioner for External Relations and European Neighbourhood Policy, is the number two diplomat of the European Union - and today she has turned 60 years old.

I won't go through her CV, Wikipedia and the website of the European Commission provide quite some information. But its worth noting that although Ms Ferrero-Waldner is rather low profile compared to other figures more prominently present in European foreign relations (i.e. the Presidency), considering the recent developments, the European Neighbourghood Policy will become more relevant for Eastern Europe and the Caucasus, which, in case Javier Solana doesn't capture it, will make Ms Ferrero-Waldner more important in the upcoming future.

I don't know whether the Commissioner is considered to remain in office after the next European Parliament elections in 2009, but at least until then we might hear more often from her than we have so far.

In any case: I wish you a happy birthday, Ms Ferrero-Waldner, and the right touch in dealing with the European Union's neighbours!

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The category "Powerful Women" is dedicated to European women with influence on the national or supranational level but with relevance for both. It has been inspired by the initiative "Females in Front".

Powerful Women (II): Rama Yade

If you were looking for a female Barack Obama on the European continent, someone uniting charisma and youth and an African origin, you would quickly find Rama Yade.

Rama Yade (photo), whose full name is Ramatoulaye Yade-Zimet, is the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and Human Rights in the Foreign Ministry of France.

Born in Senegal, she came to France at the age of 8 and, despite starting from the unfavourable banlieues ("suburbs"), she then went through an educational 'parcours' that is quite typical for the French elite. Yet, after an astonishingly short political and administrative career, the 1976-born Yade became Secretary of State on 19 June 2007 at the age of 30.

Her political path started in 2005 when she joint the party of (now president and back then minister of the interior) Nicolas Sarkozy. In 2006, she became a national secretary of this party, which most probably was an important step towards the power.

If you watch her during the time of the presidential campaign of Nicolas Sarkozy, you can already see her liveliness and her articulateness, that make up her personality (although in the interview she appears much younger than she does today). But the day when she became known to a larger public was the day when Nicolas Sarkozy was nominated as presidential candidate on 14 January 2007.

Similar to Senator Obama, who became known through his speech at the nomination congress for John Kerry in 2004, she held an impressive 13 minutes discours in front of the UMP (Union for a Popular Movement) nomination congress.

Attacking Ségolène Royal, Sarkozy's socialist adversary (interestingly also born in Dakar/Senegal) at that time, she said:

"She [Royal] says: 'Vote for me because I am a woman!' No debate! That's it, nothing more to say. In short: She wants to be treated preferentially. For us, the young women of today, the equality of rights does not mean the 'War of the Sexes'. We do not want to victimise ourselves. We are well aware of the fragility of accomplishments that women have reached. So we have to do better than to victimise ourselves unnecessarily!"

(own translation)

The same impressive resoluteness could also be seen on the day when Sarkozy was elected president, when she defended him on national television against (alleged) attacks from the left. And I think that this is exactly the reason why she has been chosen as Secretary of State although still quite young for such a position.

Nevertheless, she does not back off if she disagrees with Sarkozy and others (you can find some examples in the Wikipedia article about her). For my eurosceptic readers, I should also mention that in 2005 she was backing the French "No!" to the European Union Constitutional Treaty, against the position of her party.

But most spectacular to me seemed her comment to the press after having met and shaken hands with Gaddafi in Libya:

"Certain gestures make you feel like you should wash your hands"

Wow! This does not sound like French diplomacy, but it sounds refreshingly honest and you could only wish that there would be more politicians out there with this kind of directness that Yade displayed at numerous occasions!

If she does not make any severe mistakes, her future looks very promising to me, even if her political path might be interrupted by the typical changes in political constellations that are likely to occur one day or another.

She has everything necessary for a political career in the early 21st century and I am sure we will see more from her in the years to come!

[If you'd like to read more, I recommend an English language biographical text about Rama Yade, written by French author and economist Eloi Laurent.]

Read the follow-up article from December 2008!

Addendum:
- Video: Yade's first solo trip as State Secretary - Moldova

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The category "Powerful Women" is dedicated to European women with influence on the national or supranational level but with relevance for both. It has been inspired by the initiative "Females in Front".

Powerful Women (I): Meglena Plugchieva

The category "Powerful Women", which I will continue in the future, will be dedicated to European women with influence on the national or supranational level but with relevance for both.

As seen in the "Females in Front" petition, looking for qualified women for top European jobs is a permanent task and my "Powerful Women" series will be part of this work.

The first woman to be mentioned is Meglena Plugchieva (photo). Mrs. Plugchieva is Deputy Prime minister of Bulgaria and in this function responsible of monitoring and coordinating the EU funding.

Those of you following the news will have read that the preliminary publication of an EU Commission report on the state of affairs in Romania and Bulgaria has provoked intense discussions in Bulgaria and in the European Union - not least because huge amounts of EU funds will have to be repaid due to corruptive practices and misappropriation.

These bad news show that Mrs. Plugchieva, in office since April/May (before she was the Bulgarian ambassador to Germany), has quite a tough way to go. Yet, she has shown in her statements that she is ready to be as tough on this subject as it is necessary:

"I will not be Brussels' carrier pigeon. I will coordinate the work of each group of experts responsible for the EU funds absorption. However, this does not mean that the ministers, who have taken commitments to absorb funds under operative programs of the EU are exempt from their responsibilities and duties."

(STANDART)

Today's Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, one of the leading national newspapers in Germany, calls her the "Guardian of [public] virtue" and remarks that she does not appear like a "woman with the back to the wall" but like a hard working and assertive politician willing to eliminate all corruptive practices in her country.

And in June, a high official of the Bavarian government (the most important German federal sub-unit) said about her:

"The nomination of Mrs. Plugchieva is an important signal for the earnest effort of the Bulgarian government to fight the misappropriate use of European funds. With Meglena Plugchieva, this task is in good hands."

(Compliance-Magazin)

We will see whether the pressure from Brussles will be helpful for Mrs. Plugchieva. From my side, I can only hope that she is successful in bringing corruption and criminal practices down. This is as important for her country and the European Union as it is - supposedly - for herself!

Good luck, Mrs. Plugchieva!

Females in Front

Have you heard about the initiative "Females in Front"? It is an all-EU initiative that aims at a small but very important goal, namely that at least one of the future top EU-posts will be held by a woman.

You may think that this is irrelevant but even from a very minimalist standpoint, as Foreignpolicyblogs has argued, we have to have at least one woman on top EU-post:

Arguably, though none of the posts in question are truly democratically representative offices, nominating at least one woman would serve as a better reflection of the Union’s actual population (more than half of it are female)

Since the initiators are looking for 1 million signatures, it has still a long way to go, but until today, almost 20,000 people have signed the petition.

And since I hold this an extremely important issue, both in terms of political representation and even more in terms of gender equality, I can only ask you to join!! Go to the website and sign!