Lenin

as if by magic, also on the agenda for the IWD session is a blimmin topical call for member states to ?take effective measures, such as quotas, to ensure greater representation for women in major listed companies and on the management boards of companies in general?.

In case you missed it, Lord Davies reported back to govt this week on the the representation of women in boardrooms (only 12% of FTSE 100 directors are women) but concluded that increased transparency in the recruitment process, rather than Norwegian-style mandatory quotas, was the way to go.

This puts him at odds with the way the EU wind is generally blowing: France and Spain are thinking about legislating for quotas, and Angela Merkel has given German companies "one last chance" to self-regulate.

Deutsche Bank?s chief exec apparently responded that a woman would make his board "more colourful and prettier", exposing the shocking fact that not everyone in power has quite got this equality lark.

Actually, this session is shaping up to be quite interesting...

Apols for radio silence, am posting with thumbs from iPhone and having to stand on a chair to get a signal
RedbinD - I don't think either of the Kinnocks have any official connection to the EU any more? in which case they?re no longer receiving payments from European institutions. But yes, a common criticism of the EU is that there's a democratic deficit there, in that commissioners are appointed rather than elected (think I'm right in saying that Kinnock was appointed by the Major government.)

Glenys was elected as an MEP to the EU Parliament ? and although proposed legislation has to be passed by the Parliament in order to become law, that body doesn?t have the powers of a standard national parliament in that it can only accept, reject or amend legislation, rather than proposing it (only the unelected European Commission can do that). As far as I can work out the best it can do in that regard is pass resolutions ? more on the specific resolutions tabled for Tuesday's IWD session later.

I?ll see if I can get anyone to address these points while I?m there Lots of other points to chew over here, thanks all.

Hiya,
The EU invited us along with lots of other organisations to cover International Women's Day and are covering the costs.

Now on iPhone so apols for typos. But here's a bit more info on what's going on at the IWD parliamentary session on Tuesday. MEPs (in theory, all of them) are debating and voting on two resolutions put forward by the Women's Rights Committee. One on gender equality, the other on female poverty.

Overall seems the committee argues that ALL EU policies should have women's equality as their starting point, and that if women's employment, part-time employment and productivity rates were similar to men's, GDP wld increase by 30%.

Their position is that this will only be achieved by narrowing the gender pay gap, getting more women into decision-making positions and raising female employment rates. Plus they want child-related leave and better childcare facilities to be centre stage ...

No, no tea-serving oiwhatsoccurring
Apols also for not acknowledging everyone - am on motorway with 3% battery left! I'll also be offline for some of tomorrow but I'll catch up with you as soon as I can.

Hello all

RamblingRosa - yes, the Pregnant Worker's Directive's a bit of a biggie isn't it? The EU parliament voted overwhelmingly in favour of extending paid maternity leave (although the amendment to extend it to 20 weeks rather than 16 weeks (I think) scraped through by a meagre seven votes. Interestingly, LOTS of British MEPs voted against the proposals, and it's top of my giant To Do list to try and grab one and find out why. It's now before the Council of the European Union (aka Council of Ministers) which comprises ministers from the various member states, and they seem to be stalling on it. I'll try and find out which way the wind is blowing.

AbsDuCroissant - is there a particular area of EU spending that you're concerned about?

Hello Posadas, we're going as MNHQ, and we're there to have a poke around the EU Parliament and report back on the IWD events, rather than to represent anyone. We did think though that we might get a chance to pick the brains, and maybe bend the ear, of an MEP or two if there were particular issues that MNers were interested in - though we'd make clear that Mumsnet is a many-tentacled octopus, so to speak, and not a block vote.

I suspect the learning curve involved in this trip will be practically vertical rather steep, so I'm hoping that those of you who know your Euro onions will be tempted onto the thread and I will pick it all up by osmosis. If anyone else has never quite got around to filling the EU-shaped gap in their brain, now's yer chance to speak up. If no clever person comes along to answer on the thread, I'll try to find Someone Who Knows.