> Interesting - a similar California law was recently struck down
Notably, it was struck down by a California court as violating the California constitution.
> under what authority does the EU meddle in business like this?
According to https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_22_... the policy represents an agreement among the European Commission, European Council, and European Parliament, with the latter two still requiring a formal vote. And the EU mandate will actually be on member countries to pass enacting legislation within their jurisdiction.
Prudent policy or not, I don't think there's any way to spin this as an EU end-run around the democratic process or member state sovereignty.
And I don't think this policy applies to foreign corporations, only to companies incorporated in a member jurisdiction. (But I haven't read anything specifically mentioning the scope.)
It would be an EU directive, which means that member states will have to write new laws that accomplish this.
However don't get the wrong idea that this was just decided by someone in Brussels and it's a directive now. This is just a draft for a potential directive. This has not been approved by the European Parliament or the European Council. [1] Long way to go still.
> While there is no penalty for missing the target, companies that do achieve it will win public praise.
So no authority needed. But it's an interesting legal question whether the EU could impose such a requirement (backed by fines, for example) on unwilling member states.
Under the authority of the EU parliament (assuming that this draft legislation eventually gets a majority there), given to it by the member states through the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.
By the way, the directive's wording is actually gender-neutral, talking about an "under-represented sex". If a company has a board dominated by women, it becomes a quota for men.
Notably, it was struck down by a California court as violating the California constitution.
> under what authority does the EU meddle in business like this?
According to https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_22_... the policy represents an agreement among the European Commission, European Council, and European Parliament, with the latter two still requiring a formal vote. And the EU mandate will actually be on member countries to pass enacting legislation within their jurisdiction.
Prudent policy or not, I don't think there's any way to spin this as an EU end-run around the democratic process or member state sovereignty.
And I don't think this policy applies to foreign corporations, only to companies incorporated in a member jurisdiction. (But I haven't read anything specifically mentioning the scope.)