Europe’s listed companies will be obliged to reserve at least 40 per cent of their non-executive director board seats for women by 2020 or face fines and other sanctions under a proposal being drafted by the European Commission.
The legislation, a copy of which was obtained by the Financial Times, is aimed at what EU officials believe is a severe gender imbalance across the bloc’s 27 member states. EU data show that in January, women represented only 13.7 per cent of board positions in large listed companies.
Although several EU countries – including France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands – have adopted national quotas, such hard limits have run into fierce resistance by Britain and Sweden, which have no limits.