The legislative proposal, originally put forward by former justice and fundamental rights commissioner Vivien Reding back in November 2012, has been stuck in council since the European parliament adopted its position on the file in November 2013.
On Tuesday, many MEPs were keen to vent their frustration at the lack of progress of the dossier in the council.
The original proposal from November 2012 called for a 40 per cent presence of the under-represented sex among the non-executive directors of companies listed on stock exchanges by 2020 (by 2018 for listed companies which are public undertakings).
The European commissioner for justice, consumers and gender equality Vĕra Jourová, who inherited the dossier from Reding - the preceding commissioner - welcomed signs of progress that have been seen in relation to the view on the file of some member states such as Belgium, Germany, and Italy.
She also stressed the need for a legally binding quota as opposed to voluntary action, which is still advocated by a number of member states. Jourová expressed her hopes that the more positive (binding) approach, adopted by Latvia and a number of other member states of late, would help keep up the momentum on the subject and lead to adoption of the legislation and called on MEPs to support negotiations with national governments to this end.
Despite there being apparent consensus and support for the European commission's ambition to increase the number of women on the boards, MEPs last night appeared divided on how best to achieve this goal.
Swedish centre-left MEP Anna Hedh called for binding targets and was disappointed at a compromise proposed by the Italian presidency towards the end of last year to make the measures non-binding, saying that this would "work against a more equal Europe".
Bulgarian centre-right deputy Mariya Gabriel agreed on supporting quotas as an instrument but stressed that they must not be "an end in themselves". MEPs more sceptical of the proposals included Polish centre-right Adam Szejnfeld, who called for caution when it came to instruments to be applied by the private sector - and suggested the file should be reassessed.
Concluding the debate, the Latvian state secretary for EU affairs and representative of the council during the debate Zanda Kalniņa-Lukaševica tried to reassure MEPs, saying that the file is a priority for the Latvian EU council presidency and that she looks forward to working with MEPs in "a constructive spirit".
"Societies should be equal at all levels," she said.