For all its ‘democratic’ and ‘non-discriminatory’ pretenses, the EU is finding it fiendishly difficult to make good on these core values when selecting the personnel to fill its high-ranking positions.
A new report by the Geographical Representation in EU Leadership Observatory conclusively determines that, in 2023, Central and Eastern European citizens have been slighted, while their Northern and Western European counterparts have been given a leg up.
For its report, the research group relied on data covering “73 EU entities, 90 positions, and 539 office-holders from 1952 to the end of 2023.”
While there are five regions, its findings indicate an “overall combined dominance of Western and Southern Europe,” which together received “over 80% of all appointments since the EU’s 2004 enlargement,” with Northern Europe being uniquely situated, as it “far” outpaces all other regions when adjusting for population sizes.
Central and Eastern European citizens, however, continue to suffer a “clear” under-representation. Last year this saw a “dramatic worsening,” with not a single citizen from the region having been appointed to a leadership position.
Apart from chauvinism, one can only guess as to why citizens from that region are being ’held back’ to such a degree. Could it be because, on the whole, they tend to hold to more conservative and traditional values—values which the ‘progressive’ EU is not too keen on having espoused by its top bureaucrats?
In addition to making various recommendations towards rectifying this state of affairs, the report—most amusingly—advises the EU to “above all” act on its conclusions and “not leave the results of this analysis to Eurosceptic movements.”
Critics might say that the EU is struggling to put its support for diversity into practice in its appointment process―precisely because it fears diverse viewpoints.
