Parity democracy – A far cry from reality – Comparative study on the results of the first and second rounds of monitoring of Council of Europe Recommendation Rec (2003) 3 on balanced participation of women and men in political and public decision-making: “concludes that in the last years no major progress has been achieved to increase the presence of women in political decision making bodies. The report calls for the creation of a new momentum in member states to implement the 2003 Council of Europe Committee of Ministers Recommendation which set a 40% minimum threshold in public decision making bodies for both men and women.”