Building Bridges in Europe – An Interview with Irena Moozová, Director for Equality at the European Commission

May marked the European Diversity Month across the EU, shining a spotlight on the importance of diversity and inclusion in the workplace and in society. In support of the Commission’s efforts, on 10th of May CSR Europe hosted the launch of a European Leadership Network for Ethnic Diversity and Inclusion. Building upon the learnings and tools developed in the Belgian pilot project "Business Uniting Talents 2030", the Leadership Network is bringing together leading businesses to foster ethnic diversity and inclusion in the European labor market.

To wrap up the Diversity Month 2022, we sat down with Irena Moozová, Director for Equality and Union Citizenship at the European Commission, to take stock of the Commission’s ongoing efforts to make good on its commitment to foster more inclusive and fair societies in Europe. We also addressed how business-led projects like Business Uniting Talents 2030 can contribute to keep this challenge high on the agenda of European companies.

Ten years ago, the European Commission launched the EU Platform of Diversity Charters to support companies, public institutions, and nonprofit organisations in embedding diversity, inclusion and solidarity at the core of their activities.

How was the platform received? Did its uptake evolve over the years?

Diversity Charters have been established in Europe since 2005, providing support and promoting best practice in diversity management to companies, SMEs and public organisations. In 2010, Diversity Charters from across Europe came together to create an EU-level platform funded by the European Commission under the project ‘Support for voluntary initiatives promoting diversity management at the workplace across the EU’. Since then, the Platform has grown and now consists of 26 national Diversity Charters with 14,400 signatories of Diversity Charters, representing over 17 million employees.

We use the annual European Diversity Month to also promote the work of the Diversity Charters and in the last 2 years we have seen more than 2000 new organizations joining a Diversity Charter.

Since 2020, the European Commission launched the European Diversity Month initiative to raise awareness on the importance of diversity and inclusion in the workplace and across societies.

This year, the focus is on Building bridges. Building bridges in the workplace means also equal access to employment opportunities for people with ethnically diverse background.

Do you think European businesses are ready to tackle this challenge?

Diversity is a fact but inclusion is a choice. For example, at an EU-level, just over one in ten consider themselves part of a minority group. The foreign-born population in Europe for instance is at around 8.4%, yet, only around 23% of non-EU citizens were employed in the EU labour market. We all have to make a conscious choice to see inequality and to take responsibility and action to tackle it, to foster more inclusive workplaces and societies. Long-term commitment to diversity in terms of recruitment, succession planning, and ensuring gender equal pay are the first steps businesses have to make in order to ensure a sustainable approach in building and maintaining diversity and inclusion in the workplace.

We can see based on the example of many of the signatories to the Diversity Charters that European businesses are ready to tackle this challenge and are already doing so. Take the Ingka Group for example, which represents IKEA Retail in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. The company is tackling stereotypes through its communication efforts towards its customers, showing how equality in relationships, for example, increases happiness and wellbeing of the family unit. They are also advocating on the subject of domestic abuse, which is high in the region.

Another great example is AXA. I know you are working together with them in partnership on a project aiming to promote ethnic diversity, sharing best practices to support each other. Around 10% of staff at AXA (Belgium) are from non-European backgrounds and 60% of the board are women, which in the financial sector is a significant point.

How is the European Commission supporting companies in advancing inclusive business models?

For us, the European Commission, it is of utmost importance to work as closely with stakeholders from all spheres of life as possible, to promote diversity, inclusion, and equality. Reviewing diversity and inclusion policies is a continuous process that we work on, as there are always new topics coming into the focus and new challenges. Policy work is one of the main covert ways we support companies in advancing inclusive business models, as they set out a foundation of recommendations and guidelines for companies to build upon. In the Anti-Racism Action Plan, we committed to the development of an assessment tool to help businesses assess their own diversity journey. Overtly, the European Commission’s European Diversity Month raises awareness of the importance of diversity and inclusion in our workplaces and in the society throughout the whole European Union

The topic of this 2022 EU Diversity Month highlights the importance to connecting and involving different stakeholders in the conversation around D&I.

In this context, what role can national CSR organisations play in the advancement towards inclusive workspaces?

To achieve long-lasting change and build a more inclusive society we need to combine our expertise, our individual experience, and common commitment to creating truly diverse workplaces. People must be able to feel free to be themselves at work, to feel seen and included. Diversity policies cannot only be approached from one perspective.

In this context, I believe that CSR organizations play a crucial role of expert and stakeholder advancement towards inclusive workspaces. CSR Europe is already very engaged in many different EU Policy Dialogues, advocating the development of a level-playing field. On the other hand, this expertise is invaluable for companies who are directly affected by the different polices introduced by the European Commission. CSR Europe can empower organizations with the intelligence they need to assess and prepare for the impact of European policies and legislation on their strategy as well as operations.

How do you think that CSR Europe project Business Uniting Talents 2030 can support the collective improvement and advancement of European businesses towards achieving a more ethnic diverse and inclusive workforce?

The Business Uniting Talents 2030 project will surely serve as a best-practice example on the professional integration of people with foreign origins compared with the other Member States.

I think that as a project the BUT2030 has the opportunity to raise awareness among organisations and their employees about the privilege of not having to expend energy to overcome certain structural hurdles. We should be aware of the privilege of being a national of a Member State of the European Union and acknowledge that a large part of the European population is made up of first- or second-generation immigrants. Ethnic Diversity can be a useful place for companies to start and to open a conversation about diversity, then expand to other aspects of diversity. Success drives success, and if you achieve ethnic parity then this can be a motivating factor to address other forms of inequality.

The Commission itself is not currently representative of modern European society and more must be done to attract people from minority backgrounds. We also face issues of underrepresentation of several nationalities in the Commission and continuously implement measures being implemented to address the issue.

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