EU leaders asked to pick a woman

By Oana Lungescu
BBC News, Brussels

Wallstroem (left) and Malmstroem have called for female candidates

There are growing calls on EU leaders to appoint a woman as the bloc's president or foreign affairs chief at a special summit in Brussels on Thursday.

Both jobs were created by the Lisbon Treaty, which was ratified this month, in a bid to give the EU a stronger voice in the world.

There are several front-runners but none of them is a women.

"The right man in the right job is often a woman," says a letter published in the Financial Times newspaper.

It is signed by three fairly powerful women - European Commissioners Margot Wallstroem and Neelie Kroes and Vice-President of the European Parliament Diana Wallis - who are clearly frustrated that only men are likely to be picked for the EU's new top jobs.

In the 21st Century, they write, European democracy cannot afford to use only half of its people's talents, ideas and experience.

Looking for consensus

Sweden's EU Affairs Minister, Cecilia Malmstroem, said it would be a "very good thing" if one of the posts went to a woman.

THE PRESIDENT'S ROLE Chosen by 27 member states by qualified majority vote Two-and-a-half-year term Can be re-elected once Chairs EU summits Drives forward the work of EU Council of Ministers Facilitates cohesion and consensus Represents the EU on the world stage Who could be EU president?

"There are very few women nominated, and if you look in the lists so far there are few women who have been foreign ministers or prime ministers," she said.

"But I think it would be a good thing if we could have one of those candidates a woman."

Sweden, which holds the rotating EU presidency, is working behind the scenes to find consensus among the 27 EU leaders, most of whom are men.

One of them, Belgium's Prime Minister Herman van Rompuy, is the front-runner for EU president, with Massimo D'Alema, a former Italian prime minister, touted as a possible foreign policy chief.

But after British Foreign Secretary David Miliband ruled himself out for the latter job, there could be a compromise around another British politician, EU Trade Commissioner, Catherine Ashton.

Diplomats say she would tick many boxes, as a socialist and a woman, but she is hardly a household name.

The only woman who has been formally nominated so far is former Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga.

Known as the Iron Lady, she has attacked EU leaders for taking decisions behind closed doors and working, as she put it, like the Soviet Union.