Under the Treaty of European Union, the Committee of the Regions (CoR) was established in 1994 as a consultative body to the Council and the Commission in order to promote economic and social cohesion, and to bring Europe closer to the citizens by strengthening the influence of the regions. The CoR is founded on territorial representation only; it represents the regional/local parliaments and governments of the Member States which are elected by the people. The 222 full members of the CoR are appointed by regional and local bodies with the Council of Ministers taking a final decision. In 1995/96 the percentage of women in regional parliaments and governments in EU Member States was 24.9% and 26.1%, and respectively in local councils 20.0% (European Network 1996, pp. 4-5; for detailed data cf.
European Network 1994b). In the CoR, women are a minority of 9.9% representing 22 of the full members. The following breakdown shows the considerable differences among the full members between Member State (Table 9).25
24 The EWL was founded in 1991 and is a coalition of more than 2,500 European women’s organisations. It is closely working with the Women’s Rights Committee in the European Parliament, and the Directorate for Equal Opportunities in the Commission as well as having working relations with the Council of Ministers.
25 The number is almost twice as high for the alternate members (42 women or 18,9%), primarily because of the high number of female alternate members from Denmark (44.4%), Finland (77.7%), and Sweden (50%) as well as Ireland (44.4%) while Austria, Belgium, and Portugal do not have a single female alternate member.
Table 9. Women as full members of the Committee of the equal opportunities for women and men in September 1996 (CoR 1996), and has set up an ad hoc Working Group on Equal Opportunities in May 1997. The group consists of one representative from each Member State (except Germany which objected to the need for such policy in the CoR). The Working Group drafted a paper in which it calls upon national governments, local and regional government associations and the Council of Ministers to take equal opportunities into consideration when nominating members for the second term (CoR 1997). The draft paper was to be adopted at an internal meeting in September 1997. Besides the quantitative aspect of getting more women in, the Working Group is trying to implement a structure for the mainstreaming of equality policy by developing guidelines and a monitoring system for rapporteurs in the drafting of documents.
The fact that the CoR is now taking equality issues is important for two reasons. First, according to the Draft Treaty of Amsterdam the CoR (as well as ECOSOC) will gain advisory status also to the EP (new Article 198 and 198c; Conference of the Representatives 1997, pp.
134f.) which implies a strengthening of CoR’s position in respect to regional policy and cohesion. The impact of regional policies on women has not been analysed, e.g. the fight against unemployment covered by the regional fund. More women in the CoR might imply the chance for policy changes in favour of women’s interests in the regions (e.g. vocational training programmes).
Secondly, women’s involvement in institutionalised politics often starts with engagement and a subsequent mandate in local or regional authorities. In 1995/96 the percentage of women in regional parliaments and governments in EU Member States was 24.9% and 26.1%, and
respectively in local councils 20.0% (European Network 1996, pp. 4-5; for detailed data cf.
European Network 1994b). In many EU Member States theses figure are much higher than the number of women in the national parliament or government (cf. also Table 4 and 7). The promotion of women to be nominated to the CoR may have wider effects for the recruitment of women to decision-making posts at the national and the supranational level.20
5.6 European Court o f Justice and Court o f Auditors
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) as the jurisdiction and the Court of Auditors as part of the executive of the EU do not have to rely on public accountability as much as the other institutions, especially those with legislative competencies. However, they are important political institutions of the Union, and therefore I wish to include them in my study.
The ECJ has played an ambivalent role for the Communities’ policies on equal opportunities.
Many of the improvements for women in the area of social policy and employment in the EU Member States are based on the Court’s progressive decisions concerning the implementation of Article 119 EEC Treaty on equal payment, and the six directives concerned with women’s position in the labour market adopted since the 1970s. Until the recent revision of the Maastricht Treaty Equal payment has been the only legal basis in the Treaties for equal opportunities’ policy; it is one of the oldest and most developed policies in the field of European social policy.26 27
The earlier Court rulings in favour of equal opportunities cannot be traced back to a high number of women judges nor advocates generals. No woman has, in fact, ever been appointed by the Member States as a judge to the ECJ. The only female advocate general ever appointed was the French Simone Rozes in 1981 (Brown and Kennedy 1994, pp. 55, 68). Yet, there are two women judges (Virpi Tiili, Pernilla Lindh) out of a total of 15 in the Court of First Instance, though neither of these two is president of one of its five chambers or extended chambers.
The reasons for the pro-women decisions were on the one hand the Court’s pro-integration spirit and on the other hand the necessity of reducing economic imbalances between national economies by abolishing cheap female labour. While this illustrates the fact that women friendly decisions can be made in the absence of women, it shows the limits at the same time:
26 In 1996 the Council of Municipalities and Regions (CEMR) created a European Network of Women Elected Representatives of Local and Regional Authorities which is supported by the EU Commission. The network encourages the exchange of information, experience, and expertise and supports women in their political careers (Women o f Europe (NewsletterEio. 70, May 1997).
27 Cf. also Mazey 1988; Mazey 1995; Mashuben 1995; Dijkstra and Plantenga (eds) 1997, chap. 9 and 10; Hervey and Shaw 1997; Rees 1998. Therefore, it came as a surprise when the Court ruled against 'absolute and unconditional priority f o r women ’ in the Kalanke case in 1995. The Commission responded to the Court decision by releasing a communication on how to interpret the decision so that some form of affirmative action would still be possible. In November 1997 the Court expanded and defined the earlier ruling in the Marshall case by
m a k i n g clear that objective assessments of individual candidates has to be assured and may result in a priority for the female candidate (ECJ, Press Release No. 74/97, November 11,1997).
The ECJ confines its focus on women and labour; but in order to improve women’s position on the whole, a wider focus is required which looks at the relationship between the work sphere and the family. For example, without acknowledging that women are primary care takers and need a more developed system of child care facilities, equal opportunities in the labour market will remain limited by ‘private’ duties. Political citizenship and social and legal entitiements are closely interlinked (Meehan 1993; Rossili 1997)
Of the 15 members of the Court of Auditors Ms Kalliopi Nilolaau (audit group I) is the only woman.