EU’s female 'dream team' must put values over power

The stars appear aligned for the appointment of three women to lead the EU’s most consequential institutions.

Some will see this as a moment to celebrate the creation of a female-led European “dream team” or even a “feminist” Europe. 

For others, the jury is still out. 

A quick recap: Unless she fails to get a majority of votes at the European Parliament, the centre-right European Peoples Party’s (EPP) Ursula von der Leyen will stay on as president of the European Commission.

Roberta Metsola, also from the EPP, will lead the European Parliament and liberal Renew Europe’s Kaja Kallas, the sitting prime minister of Estonia, will become the next EU foreign and security policy chief.

Christine Lagarde will remain as the head of the European Central Bank until 2027 and Nadia Calviño was recently named president of the European Investment Bank.

Around them is a powerful and colourful cohort of other female superstars.

Stage (far) right, stands Georgia Meloni, Italy’s prime minister, who is seen as a “good European” by her EU friends but is known at home for staying true to the Mussolini-era slogan of “God, homeland, family”. 

Even further to the right is Marine Le Pen, the leader of France’s National Rally party, whose toxic anti-Islam and anti-immigration diatribes have already infected the French body politic and whose protégé - Jordan Bardella - may soon become French prime minister, sitting side by side with president Emmanuel Macron.

On the centre-left — if the German coalition survives — stands Annalena Baerbock, German foreign minister, leader of the Greens and architect of a quixotically selective “feminist foreign policy”.

The European Parliament will continue to host a number of influential female deputies, including Tineke Strik of the European Greens, Valerie Hayer of Renew Europe and Spanish MEP Iratxe Garcia, head of the Socialists & Democrats (S&D) group. 

Taking her place in the EU assembly for the first time is human rights activist, lawyer, and refugee advocate Rima Hassan who is of Palestinian heritage and represents leftwing La France Insoumise.

Put them all together and the EU institutions seem well on the way to answering European feminists’ prayers for more women in more influential jobs.

But be careful what you wish for. 

Representation is important and there is strength in numbers. Yet just as some brown and black European politicians are no different from their male, pale, and stale colleagues, so too women leaders can often be the spitting image of men.

It is the quality of leadership that matters.

As Europe enters even more turbulent waters, we need leaders who combine power with values and a decent moral compass.

The EU can only inspire respect, both at home and abroad if its leaders align with standards of democracy, human rights, and the rule of law.

Europe’s “dream team” will have to do better on several fronts.

For her part, von der Leyen discovered her inner feminist vocally and publicly after a 'sofagate' moment in Ankara three years ago.

Since then, she has won praise for her handling of the Covid crisis (bar a few disappearing messages with pharmaceutical company Pfizer) and for steering EU policy on Ukraine. 

But she will also be remembered for her staunchly pro-Israel stance, even as the country is widely being denounced for its destruction, dislocation, starvation, and “plausible genocide” in Gaza, following the 7 October Hamas terror attack.

Remarkably, as a politician who emphasises motherhood — a trait apparently shared by other conservative and far-right politicians —von der Leyen has not flinched at reports that nearly 21,000 children are missing in Gaza because they are either trapped beneath rubble, buried in unmarked graves, or detained by Israeli forces.

Along with her friend Meloni, the EU Commission chief has signed some of the most egregious cash-for-migration control deals with neighbouring strongmen, thereby further reinforcing 'Fortress Europe' and disregarding international human rights and refugee conventions.

When it comes to women’s reproductive rights, outgoing EU Parliament president Metsola’s track record remains dicey while Meloni has recently campaigned successfully to ensure there was no mention of "abortion" in a recent G7 statement.

And as far as press freedom is concerned, the Italian prime minister, who is hailed as “constructive” and pro-European in Brussels, is criticised at home for her “suffocating control” over media.

Kallas is an outspoken Kremlin critic, who is leading the drive to ramp up European support for Kyiv's war effort, but like so many other European female leaders has yet to voice any serious criticism of Israel’s assault on Gaza.

Still, it is important to remain hopeful.

United Nations deputy secretary general Amina Mohammed points out that it is not easy to be different when society’s definition of power is based on the traits of men such as “flexing muscle and testosterone”. 

As such, she says, it is unfair to judge women on an individual basis while they are still within the confines of a patriarchal system. 

Others argue that gender-based discrimination makes women leaders want to present themselves as “iron ladies” rather than peacemakers, and to eschew — not pursue — peace. 

Still, Europe can lead by example.

At a time when women’s rights are on the retreat to an extent that imperilled Afghan women are excluded from a crucial meeting on their country’s future, European women leaders have the numbers and the power to prove that women’s leadership does not mean more of the same.

Von der Leyen and others may not be able to immediately dismantle long-entrenched patriarchal structures. 

But they can prove that they are not inward-looking “white feminists” who care little about the rest of the world, except through sporadic moments of performative solidarity. 

In a world where women leaders are few and far between, Europe’s “dream team” has the privilege of proving that female power can be value-based and different from the male version.

By doing so, they will elevate Europe’s role and standing, not diminish it.