The next European Commissioners have not all been announced yet that concerns arise among feminists. As euObserver reported, “President Jose Manuel Barroso [...] admitted he is unlikely to achieve his aim of getting more women commissioners in the next commission than is currently the case”.

So far, between 4 and 8 women are expected to be on top of DGs, including:

• returning Commissioner Viviane Reding (Luxembourg)
• returning Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou (Cyprus)
• Rumiana Jeleva (Bulgaria) -> replacing another woman
• Cecilia Malmström (Sweden) -> replacing another woman

Yes, some male voices emerge and ask for gender balance in the EU’s top jobs, including the European Commission. Yes, the five largest political groups of the European Parliament issued a joint statement reminding us that gender equalty is a fundamental value of our European democracy and asking for immediate action.

But eventually, it seems that the real dynamics may once again come from the people and the Internet, in a word from e-democracy. This is the part where citizens get into the game! Thanks to Jon Worth, Maria Weimer and a few more bloggers, an online petition has come to life within less than 48h: Genderbalancedcommission.eu with a large list of female high profiles from each member state. Obviously, to complete this, the creators have also been lobbying on Twitter (with 100 followers) where there has been growing buzz and arguments within the EU community, and also on Facebook (with over 600 fans so far). Not bad for a start!

One might not appreciate the initiative arguing the core competence is more important than the gender, which is undeniable, or just saying there are only a few hundreds of feminists and eurogeeks supporting this action, which is also true. Anyway, this whole work seems to have paid off in a very short time, being already quoted by prestigious journals like European Voice or El Mundo.

Whatever the final number of female Commissioners will be, this online campaign will most probably remain as another good example of how the Internet changes politics and society bringing citizens back in the middle of the public arena. Let’s keep on lobbying!