The European Commission on Friday decided to open an infringement procedure by sending a letter of formal notice to Romania, Belgium, Czechia, Estonia, Greece, Cyprus, Latvia, Luxembourg, Hungary, the Netherlands, and Austria for failing to communicate the respective measures on the transposition of the Directive on improving the gender balance among directors of listed companies and related measures (Directive 2022/2381) to the commission.
Also, the European Commission sent a letter of formal notice to Bulgaria, Denmark, Ireland, France, Poland and Portugal for only having notified partial transposition of the directive.
The Gender Balance on Corporate Boards Directive aims for a more balanced gender representation on the boards of listed companies across all EU Member States. The Directive sets a target of 40% of the underrepresented sex among the non-executive directors of EU large listed companies, and of 33% among all directors.
The directive came into force in December 2022 and member states had until December 28, 2024 to transpose the provisions of the directive. The commission is therefore sending letters of formal notice to Belgium, Bulgaria, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Ireland, Greece, France, Cyprus, Latvia, Luxembourg, Hungary, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Portugal and Romania, which now have two months to respond, complete their transposition and notify their measures to the commission.
In the absence of a satisfactory response, the commission may decide to issue a reasoned opinion.