(27/11/2019)
Dear European Commission President desginate Von der Leyen,
We are writing in our capacity as Co-Presidents and Vice-Presidents of the European Parliament Anti-Racism and Diversity Intergroup to express our concern at the lack of diversity on the European Commission Task Force for Equality and in the European Commission workforce.
We appreciate that you are the first Commission President to create a Task Force on Equality. We are also encouraged by the fact that Commissioner Dalli and the Commission services have managed to launch the Task Force even before the new Commission has formally commenced.
However, it is concerning that the Task Force is not truly representative of the diversity of Europe and fails to include – those at the heart of its work.. People from diverse backgrounds should be leading the work of the Task Force to ensure that it focuses on the issues that are of actual concern.
Moreover, the lack of diversity in the Task Force highlights the real problem – that the European Commission workforce itself is not diverse. Although it is a meritocratic system, we believe there are many things that can be done to improve the diversity of the workforce if the Commission was really serious.
In response to the lack of diversity in the Task Force and in the European Commission workforce, we propose:
• The Task Force includes a steering group of independent experts representing the different communities concerned by the work of the Task Force;
• A new European Commission Diversity and Inclusion Strategy that includes all grounds and measures/targets in relation to workforce diversity;
• Creation of a Task Force on European Commission Workforce Diversity that reports to the Commissioner for Budget and Human Resources. You have stated that we “can only reach our full potential if we use all of our talent and diversity” and that “we cannot afford to leave any potential behind.” We would like to see these words transformed in to concrete action.
We would also like to take this opportunity to once again extend our invitation to meet with you to discuss these issues and how we can work together to ensure equality for all people living in the European Union.
Yours sincerely,
Co-Presidents and Vice-Presidents of European Parliament Anti-Racism *
*More information about the Intergroup: www.ardi-ep.eu