Bendt Bendtsen

Bendt Bendtsen
Bendt Bendtsen
Personal details
Born	25 March 1954 Odense, Denmark

Bendt Bendtsen (born 25 March 1954^[1] in Odense) is a Danish Member of the European Parliament. Before being elected to the Folketing, he worked in the police in Odense; he became a member of the Odense City Council in 1989, and he was Vice-Chairman of the Odense Criminal Police Association from 1989 to 1992.

Bendt Bendtsen was the Conservative Party's social policy spokesman from 1994 to 1995, its labour market spokesman from 1995 to 1998, and its legal policy spokesman from 1998 to 1999. He became the political leader of the Conservative Party on 5 August 1999 and became the party's Chairman in November 2000. He was the leader of the Conservative People's Party from 1999 to 2008.^[2] He was the Minister of Trade and Industry from 2001 to 2008 under Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

Folketing

Bendt Bendtsen was a temporary member of the Folketing for the Conservative Party, representing Funen County constituency, from 5 April to 24 April 1994, and he was subsequently elected as a Conservative member of the Folketing from Funen County constituency in the parliamentary election held on 21 September 1994. He has remained a member of the Folketing since 1994; in the November 2007 parliamentary election he was elected from the Funen greater constituency.^[1]

Post-election 2001

Following the November 2001 parliamentary election, Bendt Bendtsen became Minister for Economic and Business Affairs and Minister for Nordic Cooperation on 27 November 2001 in the Cabinet of Anders Fogh Rasmussen I. He left the post of Minister for Nordic Cooperation on 18 June 2002, but remained Minister for Economic and Business Affairs. He retained the latter post in the Cabinet of Anders Fogh Rasmussen II (2005) and III (2007).^[1] On 9 September 2008, he tendered his resignation as leader of the party, which then elected Lene Espersen as leader, also resigning from his post as minister.^[3][4]

Member of the European Parliament

Bendt Bendtsen was elected to the European Parliament in the 2009 elections. He is a Member of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy, substitute in the Budgets Committee and substitute in the Committee on the Financial, Economic and Social Crisis. In the Parliament he is part of the European People's Party which is the biggest political grouping the parliament.

In May 2012, he founded together with the Austrian MEP Paul Rübig and the Bulgarian MEP Nadezdha Neynsky a new organization called SME Europe, the pro-business organization within the European People's Party, which aims at improving the situation of small and medium-sized enterprises all across Europe. Currently, he holds the position of First Vice-President.^[5]

References

1. CV from Folketinget.
2. Bendt Bendtsen' profile on MiCandidate.eu
3. "Bendtsen stopper som K-formand" (in Danish). Politiken. 2008-09-09. Retrieved 2008-09-10.
4. "Enstemmig opbakning til Espersen" (in Danish). Politiken. 2008-09-09. Retrieved 2008-09-10.
5. Composition of the Board, Web presence of SME Europe, retrieved 1 April 2013

• History of the Conservative People's Party - From their official webpage.

External links

• Bendt Bendtsen's homepage
• English part of Bendt Bendtsen's homepage
• Bendt Bendtsen's page on the European Parliament website