Margot Wallström
Vice President, European Commission, Brussels

Margot Wallström was born in Västerbotten, Sweden on 28 September 1954. Active in the Social Democratic Youth League, she was elected Member of the Swedish Parliament in 1979 after which she was appointed to the Government of Sweden as Minister of Civil Affairs (1988-91), Culture (1994-96) and Social Affairs (1996-98). With a keen interest for media and communications, she served as CEO of the Värmland Regional Television Network (1993-94) and Executive Vice President of Worldview Global Media in Colombo, Sri Lanka (1998-99).

Designated by the Swedish Government she was Environment Commissioner in the European Commission (1999-2004) ardently defending the Kyoto Protocol and putting forward a radical proposal for new European chemicals legislation. Since November 2004 she is Vice-President of the European Commission, responsible for Inter-institutional Relations and Communications Strategy, and also replacing Commission President Barroso in his absence. She wishes to use her present office to increase participatory democracy on a European level and believes that sustainable development could serve as a vision for European cooperation.

Ms. Wallström received honorary degrees from Chalmers University of Technology (2001) and Mälardalen University (2004) in Sweden, and University of Massachusetts, Lowell (2005) in the U.S. She received the International Association for Impact Assessment Global Environmental Award in 2004 and was voted the European Commissioner of the Year in 2002 by the readers of the European Voice.

Together with Göran Färm, Member of the European Parliament, she published in 2004 The Peoples’ Europe or Why is it so hard to love the EU? (“Folkens Europa eller Varför är det så svårt att älska EU?”)

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