The European Parliament adopted two reports that reiterates its call for new laws introducing quotas to boost female representation in corporate boards, and supports binding measures and sanctions at national and EU level to ensure gender parity in political decision making, including electoral lists and top EU positions.

MEPs adopted in plenary session the Parliament's 2011 annual report on gender equality in the EU which calls for legislation to reduce the gender pay gap and quotas to boost the numbers of women on company boards and in political bodies. The report calls in particular on the European Commission to assess national measures taken so far, and if it finds them inadequate, to table a legislative proposal to introduce quotas to step up corporate board quotas to 30% by 2015 and 40% by 2020.

The second resolution adopted by MEPs underlined the need to consider binding measures and sanctions at national and EU level to ensure gender parity in political decision making. Electoral quotas have been successfully introduced in France, Spain, Belgium, Slovenian, Portugal and Poland, and should therefore be considered as an option.

With regard to the gender pay gap, on average, women in the EU still earn 17.5% less than men, only 12% of executives are women, and only 3% chair a board. One of the resolution adopted calls for an EU equal pay target to reduce the gender pay gap by 10% in each EU country. MEPs also call on the Council to move forward on the Maternity Leave Directive proposal to ensure paid leave across the EU.