The European Union needs to "show boys and girls" that leadership means men and women "leading together," Vestager said.
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00:00McRyder-Vestager, who is one of the EU's outgoing commissioners, has strongly criticised
00:06EU member states for not sending enough female candidates to be considered for the new commission.
00:12Only 8 out of over 25 have done so, and it's undermining President Ursula von der Leyen's
00:17efforts to appoint a gender-balanced executive.
00:20Currently, 12 of the commissioners are women and 15 are men.
00:26Well, I think it's, unfortunately, it's a de-masking of the lack of efforts when it
00:33comes to equal opportunities and gender balance. Ursula von der Leyen, she asked a, I think,
00:39completely legitimate thing, give me two candidates, a man and a woman, then I will compose my
00:46commission so it's gender-balanced and so that people have the competences needed.
00:51And I think it's really a pity that member states do not follow through and gives her
00:58this opportunity to make the best possible commission and to make it gender-balanced
01:03because we were making progress. We were, you know, also visually showing that a commission
01:12that is gender-balanced is capable of doing, you know, unprecedented work as we did in
01:18this mandate under the leadership of Ursula von der Leyen.
01:21Why is it important to have more women inside the Berlin Wall? You just answered this question,
01:25but why?
01:27When you are in such dire straits as we are, we have multiple crises, we have things to
01:33deal with, the cost of living crisis, you know, the geopolitics, economic security,
01:39of course you should tap into the talent of both half of the population and not focus
01:47on one part of the population only, the male part of the population. And you need to show
01:53boys and girls that this is what leadership looks like, men and women leading together.
02:00And you can see the full interview with Macrid Vestager this weekend in our show,
02:04The Global Conversation, where Euronews questions European and world leaders directly.