Females in Front, the petition I've signed, pointedly asks: with 250 million women in Europe surely one is good enough?

But when it comes to petitions to campaign on the issue it seems that one is absolutely not good enough, as I discovered today via Mary Honeyball MEP's blog - there's a rival poll with a similar theme at send2women.eu.

Most strange is that the politician most outspoken on this issue - Margot Wallström - is not listed as a supporter of either initiative. What's going on here?

Jon Worth » Women not unified on EU leadership effort?

Margot has signed the send2women campaign. The only reason she has not signed the Females in Front one is that it says it will be addressed to the Commission based on the citizens initiative provided for in the Lisbon Treaty. Quite apart from the fact that the question of when or if the Lisbon Treaty will come into force remains open, the Commission is not in a position to do anything with such a petition since appointing people to the posts in question does not fall within its competence.

Margot has also been fully involved in the network of female MEPs which has recently been created.

The European Womens Lobby will launch a campaign on 16 September which Margot fully endorses and she will speak at the launch. This campaign is endorsed by a large number of prominent politicians and others, including Yves Leterne, Simone Veil, Mary Robinson and many more.

See http://www.5050democracy.eu (active from 16 September) for full details.

One of the problems with the European Council is that it represents the political class only. This explains partly why the Council is the least trusted European Institution (source: Eurobarometer). The situation is so bad that Commissioner Wallström even accused this political elite of being a male chauvinist clique.

EUobserver.com: Margot Wallström fed up with EU 'reign of old men' (08.02.2008)

EU communications commissioner Margot Wallstrom has said she is fed up with the "reign of old men" in Brussels corridors, saying public opinion in Europe will not take lightly to the backroom scheming between EU hot-shots.

I know few names and not enough to recommend them:

1.  Kroes may ´know´ the system, but may also be  contaminated by the inertia.
   
2.  The EPP and Labour parties are out...