Espen Barth Eide

Eide is the son of the jurist, human rights expert, and author Asbjørn Eide (b. 1933) and Professor of nutritional physiology Wenche Barth Eide (b. Barth 1935).

Espen Barth Eide (born 1 May 1964, in Oslo ) is a Norwegian politician and political scientist.

He is currently serving as the Minister of Foreign Affairs in Jonas Gahr Støre's government, having previously done so under Jens Stoltenberg.

Eide joined the Labour Party in 1979 and in the 1980s held several positions in AUF (Labour Party Youth).

He was secretary-general of the European Movement Norway in 1992-1993 and had a key role in the campaign for Norwegian membership in the EU in 1994.

He attended the Oslo Cathedral School and graduated from the University of Oslo in 1993 with a cand.polit.

degree.

He also studied at the Autonomous University of Barcelona.

In 1993, Eide began working as a researcher in the United Nations Program at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI).

He became Head of this program in 1996, later working as an advisor to the panel on Threats, Challenges and Change and the Report on Integrated Missions.

During Jens Stoltenberg's first term as Prime Minister, from 2000 to 2001, Eide served as a State Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

From 2001 to 2013, Eide was a member of the Presidency of the Party of European Socialists.

In 2002 he became the head of NUPI's Department of International Politics, a position he held until he returned to Government in 2005.

He has also been active in the World Economic Forum since 2003, and a regular attendee of the Munich Security Conference since 2006.

In 2004, he led a policy review on integrated missions commissioned by the UN Secretariat.

When the Stoltenberg's second cabinet took office after the 2005 election, Eide became a State Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

He also served as adviser to the High-Level Panel on UN Reform, which concluded its work in 2005.

In 2010, he again served as a State Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Barth Eide served as Norway's Minister of Defence in Stoltenberg's Second Cabinet from 2011 to 2012, and subsequently as Minister of Foreign Affairs until 2013.

On 11 November 2011, he was appointed to the post of Minister of Defence.

Eide was appointed as defence minister by Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg on 11 November 2011 after Grete Faremo was appointed minister of justice.

Eide described his new position as "a great responsibility" and said he would not make "revolutionary changes".

On 21 September 2012, he was appointed to the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs, succeeding Jonas Gahr Støre.

In March 2012, Eide criticized NATO secretary-general Anders Fogh Rasmussens for saying that he was open to the possibility of using information gained under torture.

Eide pronounced this "unacceptable", saying that it violated international conventions.

Since December 2013, Barth Eide has served as a member of the board of the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (HD).

He was chair of the Board until 14 October 2021.

He was a member of the boards of Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) and the Norwegian Atlantic Committee until the same date.

After the resignation of Jens Stoltenberg's Government in October 2013, following the 2013 election, he temporarily left Norwegian politics, but returned to Norway and was elected as Member of Parliament for the Oslo Labour Party in the 2017 election.

He was re-elected in 2021.

On 22 August 2014, Barth Eide was appointed United Nations special adviser on Cyprus by former UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon.

From 2014 to 2016 he served as managing director and member of the managing board at the World Economic Forum in Geneva.

He has been a member of the Norwegian Parliament since 2017, representing the Labour Party.

He was elected to this seat in the 2017 election, and reelected in the 2021 election.

From 2017 to 2021, Eide was the Labour Party's spokesperson for Energy, Climate and Environment.

He also served as Minister of Climate and the Environment between 2021 and 2023.

He continued in this capacity under current secretary-general António Guterres until 14 August 2017, when he stepped down from his UN role in order to engage in the election campaign in Norway.

In Parliament, he sat in the Standing Committee on Energy and the Environment and also served as its first vice chair between 2017 and 2021.

Concurrently he was also the party's spokesperson on energy, climate and environmental issues.

While serving in government from 2021, his seat was covered by deputy representative Siri Staalesen.