Vidar Helgesen

Vidar Helgesen (2013)

Vidar Helgesen (born November 21, 1968 in Bodø , Nordland ) is a Norwegian politician from the conservative Høyre , who was Prime Minister's Office in the Solberg government between 2013 and 2015, when he was responsible for European affairs, and from 2015 to 2018 Minister for Climate and Environment .

Life

Helgesen grew up in Nøtterøy in Vestfold and began to study law at the University of Oslo after attending school . He was involved from 1987 to 1989 as a member of the central board of the high school students association NGS (Norges Gymnasiastsamband) and at the same time he was the head of the youth welfare organization Operasjon Dagsverk . Then began his involvement in the youth association of the Høyre , the Unge Høyre , whose central board he was a member between 1989 and 1991. He was also vice-chairman of Unge Høyre in Oslo. In the following years he was also committed to Norway’s membership in the European Union and led the unsuccessful pro-EU commitment of his party to the referendum in Norway in 1994 . After graduating in 1998, he worked from 1998 to 2001 as a special advisor to the International Red Cross in Geneva .

After his return to Norway, Helgesen was admitted to the bar in 2001 and worked briefly as a lawyer in the Oslo law firm Wiersholm, Mellbye & Bech . On October 19, 2001, he became State Secretary in the Bondevik II government in the Foreign Ministry (Statssekretær, Utenriksdepartementet) and held this post until October 17, 2005. In this position, he and Erik Solheim engaged in the peace process in Sri Lanka to end the civil war there . He was then Secretary General of the Stockholm- based International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) between 2005 and 2013 .

In the government of Prime Minister Erna Solberg , Helgesen first took over the post of Minister in the Prime Minister's Office (Statsråd, Statsministerens kontor ) on October 16, 2013 and as such was responsible for European affairs until December 16, 2015. In this function, he gave the laudation at the award ceremony for the Willy Brandt Prize to Clemens Bomsdorf in 2015 . Subsequently, after a government reshuffle, on December 16, 2015, he took over the post of Minister for Climate and Environment (Statsråd, Klima- og miljødepartementet) . In the course of the entry into government of the Venstre , his post fell to Ola Elvestuen .

In June 2020 it was announced that Helgesen would take over the post of director of the Nobel Foundation in Stockholm from 2021 .

Web links

• Entry on the homepage of the Storting
• Entry in store norske leksikon

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Rebecka Oxelström: Vidar Helgesen will become the new Executive Director of the Nobel Foundation. Nobel Peace Center, June 10, 2010, accessed July 14, 2020 .