The European Commission highlights that thanks to the regulatory pressure the percentage of number of women on boards ranged from 13.7% to 15.8% in January 2012. In addition, the Commission stressed that the increase in the share of women on boards has been recorded in all but three EU countries: Bulgaria, Poland and Ireland.

In comparison with January 2011, mid-term figures on the share of women on boards in publicly listed companies show an increase in the number of women on boards to 15.8%, up from 13.7% in January 2012. This breaks down into an average of 17% of non-executive board members (up from 15% in January 2012) and 10% of executive board members (up from 8.9%). According to the European Commission, this boost follows the women on boards proposal that the European Commission adopted on 14 November 2012 to introduce a 40% objective for women on boards based on merit.

The largest percentage point increases were recorded in Italy (up by 4.9 percentage points to reach 11%), which recently adopted a quota law that requires listed and state-owned companies to appoint 1/3 women to their management and supervisory boards by 2015. France, which introduced a quota law in 2011, has become the first EU country to have more than one woman on the top-level board of all of its largest listed companies. Meanwhile, Bulgaria is the only country where there was a notable decline (down by 4 percentage points), while Poland and Ireland have seen no change in the number of women on their boards, stagnating at 12% and 9% respectively.

Despite those figures, a quarter of the EU’s largest companies (25%) still have no women on their top-level board. Moreover, the Commission's proposal now needs to be adopted by the European Parliament and by the EU Member States in the Council in order to become law.