Dozens of women wearing shirts and ties marched outside the European Union"s headquarters in Brussels today demanding more female candidates for the bloc"s top posts, according to dpa. The protest was organized by the European Women"s Lobby and was attended by a number of female members of the European Parliament"s liberal and left-wing groupings. EU leaders will gather in Brussels on Thursday to pick a permanent president and a foreign policy chief - the two jobs being created by the incoming Lisbon Treaty. However, only a handful of the potential candidates that have emerged from the closed-door negotiations are female. They include former Irish President Mary Robinson and Vaira Vike-Freiberga, a former president of Latvia. "If these posts are not filled in a way that reflects the diversity of European society, especially in respect of the number of female candidates, your choices may not pass the European Parliament," read a "job application" leaflet being distributed in Brussels. While parliament has the power to veto nominations to the European Commission, of which the new High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy will be a member, it has no official say in the choice of EU council president. Sweden, which currently holds the EU"s rotating presidency, has admitted that it is having trouble reaching a consensus on both posts ahead of Thursday"s summit.
