EU wants direct action to get women into boardrooms

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Commission wants to make companies favour female non-executive board candidates where they are equally qualified so as to raise the proportion of women in boardrooms to 40 percent, EU sources said on Tuesday.

One source, who declined to be named, said the commission plan did not set a binding EU quota for all member states but rather set an "objective" of having 40 percent women by 2020 - suggesting that an earlier plan for a strict 2020 deadline had been dropped.