With its new Strategy on Equal Opportunities, the European Commission seeks to implement a series of measures aiming at achieving a balanced workforce, while promoting a more flexible working environment and ensuring its application at the highest level. Although the efforts put in place since 1995 have paid back, with this Strategy the Commission wants to increase the measures and actions put in place until 2014.

The Strategy on Equal Opportunities within the European Commission sets multiannual targets up to 2014. These targets are based on modelling of the evolution of Commission staff until 2014 and an analysis of the available pool of candidates, and have been established for the first time at the level of each individual Directorate-General.

The strategy is based on three central principles: attracting, developing and maintaining a balanced workforce; promoting a more flexible working environment; ensuring ownership of the strategy at the highest level.

As general objective set out by the Commission for year 2014, 25% of senior management posts should be occupied by women, compared with 21% now, with a corresponding target to replace at least 30% of retiring senior managers with women. Besides, by 2014, 30% of middle managers should be women, compared to 23% now, with 50% of retiring middle managers to be replaced by women. In case of non-management administrator (AD) 43% posts should be occupied by women by 2014.

Promoting flexibility and results-orientated work

The Strategy sets that greater use will be made of flexible working methods, such as flexitime, telework and part-time working. This will require enhanced assistance, guidance and training for managers on equality policies.

In the Communication, the European Commission establishes that, as it is laid down at EU level in the new Strategy on gender equality, equal opportunities should be systematically integrated into the human resources policy of each DG. Communication efforts towards the staff should be reinforced and senior managers should be fully engaged in the policy.

DGs and services will be invited regularly to monitor their performance up to 2014 in line with a common performance framework, and Directorate General Human Resources and Security will measure the performance of each DG on a quarterly basis and will follow-up with those that are not reaching their goals. The top performers will be awarded a performance label for a period of three years.