ELDR, in cooperation with Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom, hosted the first Liberal Breakfast of the year on 2 March. To pay attention to the International Women’s day, which will be celebrated next week, today’s discussion revolved around the theme "Breaking the Glass Ceiling – More Gender Diversity through Quotas?".

Dr. Antonyia Parvanova, Member of the European Parliament, Vice-President of the Alliance of the Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) and Coordinator of the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality in European Parliament, was the speaker of the event and Dr Jürgen D. Wickert from Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom was the moderator of the debate.

The participation was great and the debate active. Many agreed on that the self regulated development is quite slow and that the society and economy would probably benefit from greater gender diversity. It was pointed out that it is hard to find consensus among so many member countries with different backgrounds and views on equality and the question of quotas is an issue that raises many question marks and divides opinions. Most of the people in favour for quotas saw quotas as a temporary tool to use in order to fuel development and change that would benefit both sexes.