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Commissioners support No Women No Panel Campaign

The No Women No Panel Campaign initiated by Commissioner Mariya Gabriel has been supported and reiterated by several of her colleagues from the European Commission. She committed to ensuring at least one other woman is part of panels she is invited to speak at.

No Women No Panel is a campaign with a goal to raise awareness on having gender balance in panels and public events. Commissioner Mariya Gabriel committed to ensuring that for every panel or public event she is invited to there should be at least one other woman panelist. This campaign is inspired by the initiative of the BrusselsBinder which provides a database of female experts and  a platform for women experts to connect.

 

#WomeninDigital must be better represented & recognised. In 2018, it’s time all panels & public events recognise #femaleexperts in all #digital & #tech areas. I launch today #NoWomenNoPanel EU campaign for gender-balanced panels. Join us! #diversity #equality #EUvalues pic.twitter.com/GqrMJP3IJT

— Mariya Gabriel (@GabrielMariya) March 5, 2018

 

Several other Commissioners joined her in this action and have expressed their solidarity on this issue. Commissioner Corina Cretu, for Regional policy  tweeted a thought provoking question: "Women represent half of the World's population. Is it too much to ask that they are represented on panels?"

The Commissioner for Transport, Violeta Bulc also expressed her support and mentioned that gender balance is an important step towards getting women to participate in the decision making process.

Vice-President for the Euro and Social Dialogue Valdis Dombrovskis tweeted that we need to increase women's representation in conferences organised by the EU and beyond while emphasising that "there will be no panel without women." Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth and Sport, Tibor Navracsics went  also proudly supported this campaign stating that women need to be seen and heard.

'Men Only' can never work said Commissioner for International Cooperation & Development, Neven Mimica, as it leaves out the perspectives, knowledge and voices of  half of the population. He also said that there is simply no excuse not to have women in panels.

The European Commission strongly supports gender quality and this initative is a step forward  in achieving this goal.

Commissioner Gabriel takes has also announced actions  that will facilitate an increase in the participation of women in the digital sector to be implemented in the course of the next two years.