Neelie Kroes Calls for Women to Rally Round the EU - Building Gender Balanced Business

• Neelie Kroes, European Commissioner for Competition, gave a rousing defense of the EU, and its advantages for women in particular, as she addressed a “Women for Europe” meeting in Dublin in advance of the October 2009 referendum in Ireland on the Lisbon treaty that is to underpin the European Union.

• Emphasizing anew her strong belief that women have a fundamental role in the EU and the European economy, Kroes called on women in Europe to help push for changes that will increase the number of women at work, in boardrooms and in politics.

• Kroes noted such established facts as how women make up 60% of European university graduates and mentioned her oft-quoted (but not original) assertion that Lehman Brothers would not have failed if it had included Lehman Sisters among its leaders.

• Among her reasons women should back the Lisbon treaty and thus a stronger EU, she cited better jobs for children from a larger and consolidated market economy; affordable holidays (vacations) and expanded consumer choices.

• “For me, women have a fundamental role to play here,” Kroes said, adding, “Never underestimate the influence that you have on those around you. As I look around this room, I see passionate, successful, intelligent women. I see role models.”

The text of Kroes’s speech