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Carl Bildt
30th Prime Minister of Sweden
In office October 4, 1991 – October 7, 1994
Deputy	Bengt Westerberg
Preceded by	Ingvar Carlsson
Succeeded by	Ingvar Carlsson
Minister for Foreign Affairs
Incumbent
Assumed office October 6, 2006
Preceded by	Jan Eliasson
Born	July 15, 1949 (age 57) Halmstad, Halland
Political party	Moderate Party
Spouse	Anna Maria Corazza
Signature

Nils Daniel Carl Bildt (help·info) (born July 15, 1949) is a Swedish politician and diplomat, currently serving as Minister for Foreign Affairs in the cabinet of Fredrik Reinfeldt. Bildt was Prime Minister of Sweden from 1991 to 1994, and leader of the liberal conservative Moderate Party from 1986 to 1999. He has also been active as a mediator in the Balkan conflict.

Contents 1 Background 2 Early career 3 Prime Minister 4 Diplomat 5 Minister for Foreign Affairs 6 Criticism 6.1 Private Oil Affairs 6.2 Iraq War 7 Trivia 8 Honours 9 References 10 External links

Bildt was born in Halmstad, Halland, and belongs to an old Norwegian-Danish-Swedish noble family traditionally domiciled in Bohus county. His great-great-grandfather, Baron Gillis Bildt, served as prime minister a century earlier, as well as Lord High Constable of Sweden (riksmarskalk). The family's perhaps most prominent lineage comes from Norway, where at least three of his ancestors have been that country's leaders in a position comparable with a modern PM: in 16th century, his ancestor Nils Henriksson av Østråt (Gyldenlöve) served as Lord High Steward of Norway and another ancestor, Vincents Vincentson Lunge, as Viceroy of the kingdom of Norway; and then in 17th century, yet one ancestor, Jens Ovesonn Bjelke served as Lord High Chancellor of Norway, and was himself descended from king Haakon V of Norway (the king and his forefathers thus also being Bildt's ancestors) through his daughter Agnes Hakonardottir, Dame of Borgarsyssel.

Bildt served as chairman of the FMSF Confederation of Swedish Conservative and Liberal Students, a centre-right student organisation, in the early 1970s. When the non-socialist formed government in 1976, Bildt came to serve as the Moderate party coordinator in his capacity as close collaborator of the then party leader and Minister of Economy Gösta Bohman. Bildt became a Member of Parliament in 1979, although he instead served as State Secretary for Policy Coordination in the non-socialist government reformed after that election. As an MP in the early eighties, he became noted as an incisive and combative debater on foreign affairs, and found himself pitted against Prime Minister Olof Palme. Bildt was elected leader of the Moderate Party in 1986, succeeding Ulf Adelsohn. In 1991 the Social Democrats were defeated by a four-party coalition led by Bildt's Moderates.

His government program was one of liberalizing and reforming the Swedish economy as well as making Sweden a member of the European Union. It initiated the negotiations for Sweden's accession to the European Union (though the work to prepare the ground, at home and versus the EEC/EU, had already started during the final year of the Social Democrat government. The Social Democrats' volte face on possible accession to the EEC was most likely a prerequisite for the positive referendum result) and Bildt signed the accession treaty at the European Union summit of Corfu, Greece on June 23, 1994.

Economic reforms were enacted, including voucher schools, liberalized markets for telecommunications and energy as well as the privatization of publicly owned companies, privatization of health care, contributing to liberalizing the Swedish economy. Arguably, the subsequent budget cut-backs with the Social Democrates, and after 1994, continued spending cuts by the Social Democratic government, did more to reform the Swedish economy and the Swedish model, than Bildt's governments programme as such. The government's effectivness was furthermore hampered as it was plagued by in-fighting, most memorably over the construction of the Oresund bridge.

The period was also marked by a severe economic crisis. In November 1992, the crisis reached its climax as Sweden left the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (the ERM) and let the Krona float, after having defended the fixed exchange rate at tremeandous cost. The, in some people's opinion, single minded defense of the Krona, led to and continues to draw heavy criticism. At the peak of the crisis and amid run-away budget deficits, a number of emergency cut-backs were negotiated with the Social Democrats. The different measures did contribute to a reduction in the public deficit in 1994 and 1995, and allegedly to revived growth in subsequent years. There is still some debate on whether the current (2006) growth levels are in part due to the devaluation of the Krona. Some see the increased importance of the export industry as testament to this.^{[citation needed]}

The Social Democrats returned to power in September 1994, although Bildt's Moderate Party scored a slight gain.

In 1999 he was succeeded as party leader by Bo Lundgren.

After the term in government, Mr Bildt was active as mediator in the Balkans conflict, served as the European Union Special Envoy to Former Yugoslavia from June 1995, Co-Chairman of the Dayton Peace Conference in November 1995 and High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina from December 1995 to June 1997 immediately after the Bosnian War. From 1999 to 2001, he served as the UN Secretary General's Special Envoy for the Balkans.

On October 6, 2006, Bildt was appointed as Minister of Foreign Affairs in the newly formed government lead by Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt. This was seen by many as a somewhat surprising move, due to the fact that Bildt had already served both as Prime Minister and as leader of the Moderate Party and the previous conflict between Bildt and Reinfeldt.

The opposition parties and other politicians as well as newspaper columnists have questioned Carl Bildt’s suitability as Sweden’s Foreign Minister for his private stands on international issues as well as his private affairs as a buisnessman with interest in Russian gas giant Gazprom, and Lundin Petroleum, an oil company with activities in war-torn Sudan.^[1][2]

In 2002 Bildt joined the board of directors of Vostok Nafta, an oil and gas company with holdings in Gazprom. Bildt has also been a member of the board of Lundin Petroleum, the Swedish energy company which owns Vostok Nafta. He left the board of directors of both Vostok Nafta and Lundin Petroleum in October 2006.

Bildt has been criticized due to the potential conflict of interest, although Bildt cannot divest the stock options he has until the first two weeks of December 2006. Among other things the Swedish government has to decide whether or not to lend its support to the construction of a Russian gas pipeline in the Baltic sea near the Swedish island of Gotland. This conflict of interest might also affect relations between Sweden, other European Union countries and Russia, since many EU countries are dependent on Russian oil and gas for their energy needs.^{[3] [4]} On October 20, 2006 Ulf Holm, a Member of Parliament for the Green Party, reported the Foreign Minister to the Riksdag Constitutional Committee in order to determine whether Bildt's private economic affairs might represent a conflict of interest. Carl Söderbergh, Secretary General for the Swedish section of Amnesty International, has also criticized Bildt since Human Rights issues are within the portfolio of the Minister for Foreign Affairs.^[5] However, the critcism against Bildt for his interests subsided after he announced his intentions of divesting himself of all financial ties with the company at soon as is possible. It also came to light that the Swedish state pension funds (Swedish: AP-fonderna) together had invested more than a billion Swedish krona (140 million USD or 75 million GBP) in Vostok Nafta.^[6]

Bildt has also been questioned for his role as a member of the International Advisory Council of the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq, a group with ties to the Bush administration pushing for an invasion of Iraq in 2003,^[7].^[8] In addition, Carl Bildt has been criticized for opposing an international interference in the War in Bosnia and Hercegovina.^{[9] [10]}

Bildt was an early pioneer among politicians of using the internet for communicating. On February 4, 1994, he sent an electronic mail to U.S. president Bill Clinton. This was the first ever e-mail between two heads of government. In the e-mail he praised Clinton's decision to end the trade embargo on Vietnam.^[11] In the same year he also started a weekly electronic newsletter, which was still active until 2005. He also runs two blogs - one in English (started in February 2005) and one in Swedish (started in January 2007).

He is a Commander of the Légion d'honneur and has been awarded a honorary doctorate from the University of St Andrews. He was, among other things, chairman of the board of directors for Kreab, the public relations consultancy, Legg Mason, the fund manager, and serves in RAND's board of trustees.

1. ^ PM Nilsson, "Bildt måste gå", Expressen, January 11, 2007 (Swedish)
2. ^ Fredrik Malm, "Bildt måste byta politik eller avgå", Expressen, January 15, 2007 (Swedish)
3. ^ Bildt gör miljonklipp på ryska gasoptioner, Affärsvärlden, October 11, 2006 (Swedish)
4. ^ Bildts aktieinnehav "omdömeslöst", Dagens Nyheter, October 19, 2006 (Swedish)
5. ^ Bildt KU-anmäls för aktieinnehav, Svenska Dagbladet, October 20, 2006 (Swedish)
6. ^ [AP-fonder investerar i Vostok Nafta http://www.aftonbladet.se/vss/telegram/0,1082,68196766_854__,00.html], Aftonbladet, November 4, 2006 (Swedish)
7. ^ "Bildt in hot water over Iraq war lobbying", The Local, February 23, 2007
8. ^ Vad Carl Bildt gjort för kriget, Aftonbladet, October 27, 2006 (Swedish)
9. ^ Dilsa Demirbag-Sten, Oförebildtlig, Expressen, October 16, 2006 (Swedish)
10. ^ Per Ahlmark, "Du vet ju hur Carl är", Dagens Nyheter, October 24, 2006
11. ^ "First Email Bildt to Clinton", bildt.net

• bildt.net, official website
• Alla Dessa Dagar, Bildt's Swedish-language blog
• Bildt Comments - Bildt's English-language blog (inactive)

Preceded by Carl Cederschiöld	Chairman of the Confederation of Swedish Conservative and Liberal Students 1973–1974	Succeeded by Mats Svegfors
Preceded by Ulf Adelsohn	Chairman of the Moderate Party 1986–1999	Succeeded by Bo Lundgren
Preceded by Ingvar Carlsson	Prime Minister of Sweden 1991–1994	Succeeded by Ingvar Carlsson
Preceded by Office created	High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina 1995–1997	Succeeded by Carlos Westendorp
Preceded by Jan Eliasson	Minister for Foreign Affairs 2006 – present	Incumbent

Prime Ministers of Sweden

De Geer (1818-1896) • Posse • Thyselius • Themptander • G. Bildt • Åkerhielm • Boström • von Otter • Boström • Ramstedt • Lundeberg • Staaff • Lindman • Staaff • Hammarskjöld • Swartz • Edén • Branting • De Geer (1854-1935) • von Sydow • Branting • Trygger • Branting • Sandler • Ekman • Lindman • Ekman • Hamrin • Hansson • Pehrsson-Bramstorp • Hansson • Erlander • Palme • Fälldin • Ullsten • Fälldin • Palme • Carlsson • C. Bildt • Carlsson • Persson • Reinfeldt

v • d • e Cabinet of Fredrik Reinfeldt
Reinfeldt • Malmström • Ask • Billström • Bildt • Tolgfors • Carlsson • Odenberg • Hägglund • Larsson • Husmark Pehrsson • Borg • Odell • Leijonborg • Björklund • Adelsohn Liljeroth • Erlandsson • Carlgren • Olofsson • Torstensson • Littorin • Sabuni