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EMEA Proxy Season 2026: Board Diversity Trends in EURO STOXX 600

Below is an excerpt from ISS-Corporate’s recently released article “EMEA Proxy Season 2026: Board Diversity Trends in EURO STOXX 600”.

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The full article is available on ISS-Corporate’s resources page.   

As the 2026 proxy season enters its peak in Europe, this first iteration of the Proxy Season Pulse series for the European market examines trends in board gender diversity across the STOXX Europe 600 Index over the 2022–2026 period. Diversity has become a key focus area for regulators and investors across Europe in recent years, and this has been further reinforced by the EU Gender Balance on Corporate Boards Directive which sets a target for large European-listed companies of at least 40 percent representation of the underrepresented sex among non-executive directors, and 33 percent among all directors. Member States were required to transpose the Directive into national law by 28 December 2024, with companies expected to meet the targets by 30 June 2026. 

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Authored By

Karla Silva, Compensation & Governance Advisory, ISS-Corporate
Yan Xu, Compensation & Governance Advisory, ISS-Corporate
Toby Huang, Data Analytics, ISS-Corporate

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