Eva Birgitta Ohlsson Klamberg (born 20 July 1975) is a Swedish politician who was Minister for European Union Affairs in the Swedish government from 2010 to 2014. She is a member of the Liberals, formerly the Liberal People's Party. Birgitta Ohlsson serves as the National Democratic Institute's director of political parties. In June 2017, Ohlsson challenged incumbent party leader Jan Björklund to become the next leader at the congress in November 2017. On 15 September 2017, following results from the 'test election' in Stockholm County, Ohlsson announced she was to relinquish her leadership bid and to leave the political arena by the next general election in 2018.

Early life and education

Birgitta Ohlsson was born on 20 July 1975 in

Linköping Linköping ( , ) is a city in southern Sweden, with around 167,000 inhabitants as of 2024. It is the seat of Linköping Municipality and the capital of Östergötland County. Linköping is also the episcopal see of the Diocese of Linköping (Chu ...

Östergötland County Östergötland County () is a county or '' län'' in southeastern Sweden. It has land borders with the counties of Kalmar to the southeast, Jönköping to the southwest, Örebro to the northwest, and Södermanland to the northeast. It also has a ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

. She received her upper secondary ('' gymnasium'') education at Katedralskolan in Linköping between 1991 and 1994. Between 1994 and 1997 she studied

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and Power (social and political), power, and the analysis of political activities, political philosophy, political thought, polit ...

international relations International relations (IR, and also referred to as international studies, international politics, or international affairs) is an academic discipline. In a broader sense, the study of IR, in addition to multilateral relations, concerns al ...

and

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

studies at

Stockholm University Stockholm University (SU) () is a public university, public research university in Stockholm, Sweden, founded as a college in 1878, with university status since 1960. With over 33,000 students at four different faculties: law, humanities, social ...

Career

Between 1997 and 1999 Ohlsson worked as an

editorial An editorial, or leading article (UK) or leader (UK), is an article or any other written document, often unsigned, written by the senior editorial people or publisher of a newspaper or magazine, that expresses the publication's opinion about ...

writer for several liberal newspapers in Sweden, such as '' Sundsvalls Tidning'', ''

Vestmanlands Läns Tidning ''Vestmanlands Läns Tidning'' (''VLT'') is a Swedish liberal newspaper published in Västerås Västerås () is a city in central Sweden on the shore of Mälaren, Lake Mälaren in the province of Västmanland, west of Stockholm. The city h ...

'', '' Västerbottens-Kuriren'' and ''

Dagens Nyheter (, ), abbreviated ''DN'', is a daily newspaper in Sweden. It is published in Stockholm and aspires to full national and international coverage, and is widely considered Sweden's newspaper of record A newspaper of record is a major nationa ...

''. Between 1999 and 2002 she was chair of the Liberal Youth of Sweden, the youth wing of the Liberal People's Party. In the 2002 general election Ohlsson was elected a member of the Swedish parliament, representing the

Stockholm Municipality Stockholm Municipality () or the City of Stockholm () is a municipality in Stockholm County in east central Sweden. It has the largest population of the 290 municipalities of the country, but one of the smallest areas, making it the second most ...

constituency. In the parliament she served as a substitute to the Committee on the Labour Market (2002–2006) and the Committee on Foreign Affairs (2002–2004), and as a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs (2006–2010). In the parliament she was also her party's spokesperson on foreign affairs. She has also held various voluntary assignments, such as chair of the Association of Liberal Students in Stockholm (1996–1998), deputy chair of Young European Federalists in Sweden (1998), member of the board of the Swedish International Liberal Centre (since 2001), chair of the Swedish Republican Association (2002–2005), deputy chair of the Sweden–Israel Friendship Association in Stockholm (2003–2005), member of the national board of the Liberal People's Party (since 2007) and chair of the Federation of Liberal Women (2007–2010). She is also part of the Elie Wiesel Network of Parliamentarians for the Prevention of Genocide and Mass Atrocities and against Genocide Denial. On 2 February 2010 Ohlsson was appointed as new Minister for European Union Affairs in the Swedish government, succeeding Cecilia Malmström. From 2018 until 2019, Ohlsson served on an Independent Commission on Sexual Misconduct, Accountability and Culture Change at

Oxfam Oxfam is a British-founded confederation of 21 independent non-governmental organizations (NGOs), focusing on the alleviation of global poverty, founded in 1942 and led by Oxfam International. It began as the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief ...

, co-chaired by Zainab Bangura and Katherine Sierra.

Personal life

Birgitta Ohlsson is married to Mark Klamberg, a Ph.D. and professor of

international law International law, also known as public international law and the law of nations, is the set of Rule of law, rules, norms, Customary law, legal customs and standards that State (polity), states and other actors feel an obligation to, and generall ...

.Stockholm University
24 June 2019

Early life and education

Career

Personal life

References

External links