Margot Wallström

Margot Wallström
Deputy Prime Minister of Sweden Acting
Incumbent
Assumed office 3 October 2014 Serving with Åsa Romson
Prime Minister	Stefan Löfven
Preceded by	Jan Björklund
Minister for Foreign Affairs
Incumbent
Assumed office 3 October 2014
Prime Minister	Stefan Löfven
Preceded by	Carl Bildt
European Commissioner for Institutional Relations and Communication Strategy
In office 22 November 2004 – 9 February 2010
President	José Manuel Barroso
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Maroš Šefčovič (Inter-Institutional Relations and Administration)
First Vice President of the European Commission
In office 22 November 2004 – 9 February 2010
President	José Manuel Barroso
Preceded by	Loyola de Palacio
Succeeded by	Catherine Ashton
European Commissioner for the Environment
In office 13 September 1999 – 11 November 2004
President	Romano Prodi
Preceded by	Ritt Bjerregaard
Succeeded by	Stavros Dimas
Personal details
Born	(1954-09-28) 28 September 1954 Skellefteå, Sweden
Political party	Social Democrats
Spouse(s)	Håkan Wallström
Children	2
Signature

Margot Elisabeth Wallström (Swedish pronunciation: ; born 28 September 1954)^[1] is a Swedish politician of the Social Democrats and diplomat. She has been the Minister for Foreign Affairs since 3 October 2014.

Wallström previously served as European Commissioner for the Environment from 1999 to 2004 and as European Commissioner for Institutional Relations and Communication Strategy from 2004 to 2009. She was also the first of five vice-presidents of the 27-member Barroso Commission and worked as Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General (SRSG) on Sexual Violence in Conflict.^[2]

Early life and career

Born in Skellefteå, Wallström is a high school graduate without academic degrees,^[3] Wallström worked as the CEO of a regional TV network in Sweden and before taking up her appointment as EU Commissioner she was the executive vice-president of Worldview Global Media in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Wallström is married and has two children.

Curriculum vitae

As of 2007^[4]

Political career:

• 2014–present Swedish Minister of Foreign Affairs
• 2010–2014 Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) on Sexual Violence in Conflict
• 2004–2010 First Vice President of the European Commission for Institutional Relations and Communication Strategy
• 1999–2004 Member of the European Commission for the Environment (Prodi Commission)
• 1996–1998 Minister for Social Affairs
• 1994–1996 Minister for Culture
• 1993– Member of the Executive Committee of the Swedish Social Democratic Party
• 1988–1991 Minister of Civil Affairs (Consumer Affairs, Women and Youth)
• 1979–1985 Member of Parliament
• 1974–1977 Ombudsman, Swedish Social Democratic Youth League

Employment:

• 1998–1999 Executive Vice-president, Worldview Global Media, Colombo, Sri Lanka
• 1993–1994 CEO, TV Värmland (Regional Television Network)
• 1986–1987 Accountant, Alfa Savings bank, Karlstad
• 1977–1979 Bank Clerk, Alfa Savings Bank, Karlstad

Education and other:

• 1973 Graduated from high school

Political career

Wallström has had a long career in politics in the Swedish parliament, the Swedish government, and the European Commission. She was Environment Commissioner from 1999–2004 and in the Swedish government she was Minister for Consumer Affairs, Women and Youth in 1988–1991, Minister for Culture in 1994–1996 and Minister for Social Affairs in 1996–1998.

European Commissioner for the Environment, 1999-2004

During her time in office, Wallström pushed the European Commission’s initial proposal for REACH, a regulation requiring manufacturers of industrial chemicals to test and register their products with the European Chemicals Agency before they can be used.^[5] In 2004, she approved the importation of a genetically modified corn from the United States for animal feed after a six-year moratorium, arguing in a statement that the corn produced by biotechnology company Monsanto, known as NK603 maize, had been rigorously tested and was considered “as safe as any conventional maize.”^[6]

First Vice-President of the European Commission, 2004-2010

In 2004, Wallström became the first member of the European Commission to operate a blog. The comments section of her site quickly became a hotspot for arguments concerning the policies of the European Union. After the rejection of the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe by French and Dutch voters, Wallström pushed forward her "plan D" (for democracy, dialogue and debate) to reconnect Citizens with the Union.^[7] Her work on such platforms, including the backing of the oneseat.eu petition, has given her a good reputation in some quarters, even being dubbed "the Citizens Commissioner"^[8] – but has earned her names like "the Propaganda Commissioner" as well from political opponents. The Economist listed her among the least effective commissioners in 2009.^[9]

In 2006, Wallström presented her a plan to transform the EU’s

References

• Archived website, The members of the Barrosa Commission (2004–2009)
• Archived website as Commissioner for the Environment

External links

• 2007 Foreword to Al Gore's Swedish translation of the book An Inconvenient Truth.^[39]
• 2004 Book (together with MEP Göran Färm): The People's Europe or Why is it so hard to love the EU?^[40]

Publications

• 2001 – Honorary doctor at Chalmers University, Sweden
• 2002 – European Commissioner of the Year (by European Voice)
• 2004 – Honorary doctor at Mälardalen University, Sweden
• 2004 – IAIA Global Environmental Award
• 2005 – Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters Degree, University of Massachusetts Lowell, Lowell
• 2008 – Göteborg Award for Sustainable Development (jointly with Theo Colborn, Jan Ahlbom and Ulf Duus]]
• 2009 – Monismanien Prize for Freedom of Speech

Recognition

• Edberg Dialog, Member of the Board
• International Crisis Group, Member of the Board of Trustees
• Mary Robinson Foundation - Climate Justice (MRFCJ), Member of the International Advisory Council
• Svenska PostkodStiftelsen, Member of the Board of Directors
• Enough Project, Fellow
• Global Challenge Foundation, Member of the Board (2013-2014)
• Ica Gruppen, Member of the Board of Directors (2013-2014)
• Institute for Human Rights and Business, Adviser (2012-2014)
• International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA), Member of the Advisory Board (2011-2014)
• Lund University, Chairwoman of the University Board (2012-2014)

Other activities

Also during her time as Vice-President, Wallström was criticized after she informally suggested support for Socialist candidate Ségolène Royal in the 2007 French presidential election on her blog, celebrating the fact that a woman got into the second round of the elections. She said: "J'étais si contente de voir qu'une femme participera au deuxième tour de l‘élection présidentielle!" (I was so happy to see that a woman would be participating in the second round of the presidential election!)^[37] Commissioners are not meant to be politically biased in elections under their code of conduct.^[38]

In 2005, Wallström – in her capacity as EU Commissioner responsible for communications – came under pressure to justify her handling of a controversial speech that linked opposition to European integration with Nazi genocide, after it emerged she had changed the version published on the internet to remove the controversial passage. The original version of the speech, given to journalists ahead of Wallström's visit to Terezin in the Czech Republic to mark the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camp, suggested that scrapping the idea of a supranational Europe could put the continent back on the road to a holocaust.^[36]

Controversy

On March 10, 2015 Sweden announced it would revoke a weapons export agreement with Saudi Arabia that had been in place since 2005.^[32] Saudi Arabia retaliated by stopping visa issues for Swedish businesspeople, boycotting Wallström's speech from the Arab League, temporarily withdrawing their ambassador from Sweden,^[33][34] and refusing to accept four Amazonian monkeys from a Swedish zoo.^[35]

Wallström "promised a 'feminist' foreign policy when her Social Democrats formed the coalition government" in October 2014.^[30] She has criticized the lack of women's rights in Saudi Arabia.^[31] The Spectator, the oldest continuously published magazine in the English language, wrote:

Political positions

One of Wallström’s main foreign policy goals is to secure one of the non-permanent seats for Sweden on the UN Security Council in the 2016 elections.^[29]

In May 2015, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appointed Wallström as member of the High-Level Panel on Humanitarian Financing, an initiative aimed at preparing recommendations for the 2016 World Humanitarian Summit.^[28]

In January 2015, Wallström tweeted criticism of Saudi Arabia's flogging of human rights activist blogger Raif Badawi, calling it a "cruel attempt to silence modern forms of expression".^[27]

In December 2014, Wallström summoned the Russian ambassador to Sweden Victor Ivanovitj Tatarintsev over the behaviour of a Russian military jet which Swedish authorities said had caused an SAS flight from Copenhagen to Poznan, Poland, to change course off southern Sweden; the incident inflamed sensitivities over Russian flights in the Nordic region, driven in part by tensions over separatism in eastern Ukraine.^[25] On September 11, 2015, she again summoned Russia's ambassador to explain comments from the Russian foreign ministry warning of "consequences" if Sweden joins Nato.^[26]

On 30 October 2014, Wallström was the first EU foreign minister to recognise the State of Palestine, in view to "facilitate a peace agreement by making the parties less unequal",^[23] resulting in that Israel the very same day recalled its ambassador for consultations.^[24]

On 3 October 2014, when the Social Democratic leader Stefan Löfven became Prime Minister, Wallström was appointed to the Swedish government as Minister of Foreign Affairs.^[22]

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Sweden, 2014-present

On 18 September 2010, Wallström confirmed that when her assignment with the UN ends, in February 2012, she would become the chair of the University Board at Lund University in Sweden.^[21]

In August 2010, Ban sent Wallström to the Democratic Republic of Congo to help investigate claims that rebel fighters raped more than 150 women and baby boys over four days within miles of a UN base in the country.^[19] Wallström later addressed the United Nations Security Council in a September 2010 session on the use of sexual violence as a weapon by both rebel militias and government troops in the eastern provinces of the DRC. In her speech, she demonstrated that the rapes in the North Kivu and South Kivu provinces “were not an isolated incident but part of a broader pattern of widespread systematic rape and pillage.”^[20]

On 31 January 2010, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, announced at the African Union summit in Ethiopia his intention to nominate Wallström as his first ever Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict.^[17] As a reaction, Wallström said that she felt "honoured" and "humble" to have been chosen for the job,^[18] which she started in April 2010.

United Nations Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, 2010-2012

On 16 November 2007, Margot Wallström, became Chair of the Council of Women World Leaders Ministerial Initiative. This position was previously held by former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright.

In December 2006, Wallström was voted the most popular woman in Sweden, beating royals and athletes in a survey carried out by ICA-kuriren and Sifo. The previous year, 2005, she was second place. Wallström was modest in response stating that "it might be because I'm so far away".^[16]

Immediately after the election of Mona Sahlin as party leader, Wallström accepted a membership in a group working to develop political strategies for the upcoming election to the European Parliament in 2009. The membership in this group was considered by Swedish liberal Carl B Hamilton (and later also Fredrik Reinfeldt) to constitute a breach of the oath every member of the European Commission gives, which states that any member of the commission should work for the community's best interest with no influence from politicians. On 19 March, the vice chief spokesman of the European Commission, Pia Ahrenkilde-Hansen, stated that her new assignment was not in conflict with her commissioner position. The chief spokesman, Mikolaj Dowgielewicz, agreed.^[14][15]

Following the Sweden’s 2006 election, in which the Social Democratic Party lost power, former Prime Minister Göran Persson announced his withdrawal from politics in March 2007. Wallström was regarded as the favourite candidate to succeed Persson as Social Democratic party leader,^[11] but made clear that she did not wish to be considered for the position.^[12][13] The post instead went to Mona Sahlin.

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